Floor One Hundred and Beyond
by Kirisaki-Kyouko
Summary: The release of Sword Art Online traps ten thousand people inside of a virtual world. Kirito tells us the story of how the game is cleared from the future, alongside his wife. What sorts of trials and tribulations did they have to endure in the virtual world? Kirito/Sachi and Kirito/Asuna pairings.
1. The Lamb in the Lion

Hello everyone! I'm trying my hand at a Sword Art Online fanfiction. I got some inspiration from another writer to try a fanfiction with the Kirito/Sachi pairing. Instead of making a one shot, or a fast intense sort of fanfiction, I am planning on making having an alternate story line. I introduce you to my newest work.

-Floor One Hundred and Beyond-

By: Kirisaki Kyouko

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**Chapter 1: The Lamb in the Lions' Den**

It all started twenty-two years ago with the new full-dive technology that would change mine, my wife's, and ten thousand other lives forever. After playing in the beta test for a few months, the full game released as a huge hit. The ten thousand copies sold out almost immediately, though the one thousand beta testers like me were guaranteed a copy. The game that would define our lives, the death trap that a crazy inventor came up with was called Sword Art Online.

**November 6, 2022 [Floor 1, Town of Beginnings]**

A forced teleport brought every player back to the Town of Beginnings. Mass confusing spread through the crowd. Whispers became shouts, and shouts became screams. The smell of fear hung potent in the morning air. Only a few hours had passed since the servers for Sword Art Online turned on, and all of this was happening. In all of my time as a VRMMORPG/MMO player, something of this magnitude had never happened before.

Someone shouted to look up. By instinct, I followed his advice and looked to the sky. A single red polygon was hanging in the sky of Aincrad, the floating castle that the game existed in. Soon, the polygon started to spread until the entire sky was filled in a blood red color. Something that looked like blood actually started to ooze out from between the polygons. The red gloop congealed together, eventually coming together in the shape of an enormous person. There was no face in the hood, yet it still spoke out to us.

Someone bumped into me as I took a step back. The large man's message was one that drove shock into the entire crowd. This was a life or death game. To die here was to die in the real world as well. Everyone was screaming. The den in the Town of Beginnings was almost too much to endure. My ears rang in response. After what seemed like an eternity, I noticed that someone was clinging onto my arm. A girl about as tall as me with dark blue hair clung to me as if her life depended on it. Fear dilated her eyes to absurd proportions. Her legs shook violently beneath her skirt. Suddenly, she dropped to the floor. She raised her palms to either side of her head and screamed.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHh! Let me out of here! I don't…" she trailed off. Tears streamed from her eyes. "I don't want to die…" she whispered. "Someone save me," she mouthed. I could no longer hear her, but I could understand what she meant. She sat there on the hard tiles of the plaza. Just watching her stare a life and death ultimatum in the face was enough to bring tears to my own eyes. I tried to shrug off the feeling before extending a hand to her. She looked at me like a deer looking into the headlights of an oncoming car. It took a few seconds before she reached for my hand. The moment she was on her feet again, she looked like she would faint again.

It was then that the red game master announced that we all had an item in our inventories that was a "gift" from him. Everyone in turn opened their inventories and extracted the item. It was just a mirror. After a moment or so, the mirror split up into infinite polygons and scattered. All around me, flashes of light could be seen around each of the players. When the light disappeared, the avatars that each person had built when the game started were gone. What replaced them was somewhat of a shock. There were some guys dressed in female clothing, some people had gotten shorter, while other's had a completely different color complexion. The game master chimed in one more time. He explained that to make sure no one had an unfair advantage in the game, he reverted everyone to their original look in the real world. It was a sight to behold. The tension in the atmosphere was almost suffocating. There were some guys that looked absolutely disgusted, while the ones that were wearing female clothes were turning red. I looked beside me to the person that was a girl. Her face had become younger and more innocent. She was shorter, but she was definitely still a girl. It hit me then that I must have reverted to how I looked in the real world as well, but now was not the time to be thinking about it. I made my way to the force field boundary at the edge of the plaza, waiting for the announcement to end. I was determined to beat this game, so I needed to get started as soon as possible.

There was a tug at my shirt. I turned around to see the small girl clutching one hand close to her heart.

"I just wanted to thank you for helping me back there. I didn't meet anyone before we were brought here. It was so scary not having anyone to talk to…" She paused for a moment, looking thoughtfully at the ground. I thought this was kind of funny, since most people I knew looked thoughtful when they looked towards the sky and beyond. Or maybe it was just me. "I completely forgot to introduce myself. I'm Sachi. Nice to meet you." She gave a funny little bow.

I'm not really used to giving many introductions. I returned with a stiff looking bow of my own. "I'm Kirito." I gave her an awkward looking smile. "Well it seems that the game master is done talking. I'll be on my way now then. It was nice to meet you Sachi." I turned to leave once more when someone caught my hand. I looked back to see Sachi holding on.

"P-please take me with you. I have some of my friends from school playing with me as well, but they're scared right now. They want us to just stay in the Town of Beginnings until the game is cleared. I don't want to stay here." Her face gave away something. Her hesitation. The way she wouldn't look me in the eye while she was talking. It was all a farce. "I want to overcome my fear of this game." Her eyes fired up. The light reflecting off of them made them sparkle. "Take me with you!" she repeated.

"Is… is it really just you, Sachi?" I said. I didn't really know what to do. Her request was from her heart. Everyone has their own demons to defeat, and maybe this was hers. "I do not want to be responsible for anyone's death if I can't protect them."

I didn't really know what I was saying anymore. I didn't know what to do. I was a beta tester. I knew how to move along to the first dungeon. I knew the best way to level up and which quests were good. This girl, Sachi, would probably hinder me a little bit. I can't say she wouldn't be a good partner to keep while going through this game, but the burden on me if something happened to her, especially because she's a girl.

"Yes. It's just me. I'm scared beyond belief, but if I just stay here and do nothing, I think I might go insane. Please, Kirito." A single tear rolled down her cheek.

I conceded. I opened my menu and issued a party invite to her. A small ringing of a bell probably occurred on her side as well because she looked up in shock when she received the invite. It took her a moment to hit the accept button because of how much her hands were shaking. As she accepted the invite, a second status bar appeared in the top left of my vision representing Sachi. It showed her in game name as well as a bar for her hit points. To my relief, though a bit obvious, her HP was still green. After a second check to my supplies and status, I set off at a brisk pace to the edge of the town which would lead me to the next one I planned to visit. My destination would be a place people that were not beta testers wouldn't find for a while. It would be a good spot to train and get an early advantage. If I wanted to clear the game, we would need to have only the strongest players, and I planned to be in that group.

I heard the soft clacking of Sachi's footsteps behind me. As we left the city behind us, I moved even quicker. I couldn't tell if Sachi was having trouble keeping up with me or not, but I needed to get to the next town as soon as possible. It would take a while for me to complete the quest there that I wanted, so it was best to get started.

The path to the town wasn't very eventful. Sachi asked me to teach her to fight a little bit, so I demonstrated for the same thing I did for Klein. I pulled out my sword and concentrated so that the sword skill would activate. Then I lunged towards the boar in our path. The sword cut out a light blue path in the air as I soared towards the doomed creature and cut it in half. She applauded when the boar burst into a thousand polygons after a cute death animation. She tried out her sword skill on the next boar we found. As I showed her she lifted her arm into position as to tell the game system she intended to use a sword skill. The mace she had equipped glowed bright orange, turning her hair for a dark blue into more of a purple. She dashed forward and impaled the boar through its snout. The boar flew back several meters before hitting the ground and shattering into the polygons and disappearing. For a while we trained on the boars until Sachi had mastered the basics of calling forth her sword skill. Neither of us had reached level two, and we needed to get moving before someone else beat us to the first quest.

It was a bit past mid-day when we finally reached the village. Using the money we'd made from killing monsters earlier, we purchased as many restoration items as possible. This shop didn't sell a teleportation crystal, though we probably wouldn't have enough to buy one anyone. But in case of an emergency it would have been nice to have one.

After purchasing our supplies, Sachi and I headed over to the house of this female NPC who would give us a quest. It was more for me than for her because I needed to get a stronger sword than the one that was given out as a beginner item. As I waited and went through the motions to start the quest, Sachi followed through the motions with me. I didn't protest, thinking this would be a good experience for her even if she wouldn't get anything particularly good out of it.

To complete this quest, we had to get a rare drop from a monster outside. The drop rate was about one in one hundred. To cheer us up over this fact, Sachi and I just started to train on the flowers. Being a beta player, I knew all of the attacking patterns of the flowers, but Sachi was struggling. I shouted out behind trying to explain to her how to avoid everything. Something had changed in Sachi in the few hours since I'd known her. When we first met she was frightened beyond all reason. Her motor skills were compromised, and she had trouble breathing. Now as I watched her fight, she had a new found determination. She took everything I said to heart and charged straight at the flower monsters. Her dodges were stunning, almost as if she'd played VRMMO's all of her life.

Two hours after we started slaying the flower monsters, we both hit level two. Having played the beta, I knew both the ups and downs of the two new skills available to me. One was the hiding skill which would hide me from sight from people and monsters that did not have a high scouting skill. The other skill was the scouting skill. The higher this skill got, the further out one could detect approaching enemies, eventually being able to find players that were using the hiding skill. I decided on taking the detection skill. This game was for real. This was for life and death. The key to staying alive was identifying what wanted to kill you before it could find you.

Because it's considered rude to look at other people's stats, I refrained from looking at what Sachi chose for her level up skill. Her face was crinkled up, thinking hard on what to put her new skill points into. It took about five minutes before she finally made a choice. She seemed to be happy about it, turned to me, and gave me a "v" sign with her fingers. She raised her mace and charged in once more.

The internal clock on my menu said that it was 20:40. Light was long gone at this point, but we had still yet to find a flower. Sachi and I had leveled up to level 3 already. Killing the flower monsters became something like a chore, but this was the life as an RPG player. Grind, grind, and grind some more until you're satisfied. All of the sudden I hear a gasp from Sachi. In her hands was one of the flowers that we needed to complete the quest. A smile was spread across her face as she presented it to me. Almost by habit I raised my hand to take it but stopped myself. This was her quest item. Sure she could give it away, but I could find my own. I shook my head.

"Sachi, you found it. You should turn it in to complete the quest. I can find my own." I grimaced as I finished talking looking at my feet. It would be so easy for me to just take the flower she had gotten and finish my own quest. I didn't even plan on playing with other people in Sword Art Online. I was, and still am, a solo player. As I looked up I noticed Sachi had brought out her menu and reading a pm from someone.

"Kirito…" she mumbled to herself. "Kirito." She said again."

"Hm? What?" I replied, finally realizing that she was talking to me.

"I… I really can't thank you enough for showing me the basics of this world, but my friends have decided that they're going to go out and play the game to its fullest and want me to play with them. I think it's best if we part ways here." She held out the blue flower to me once more. "I really want you to have this. Take it as a token of our friendship." Once more she gave me one of her sincere smiles. I reached out to take the flower from her. In a very cheeky fashion she pulled it back. "On one condition. You have to add me to your friends list, okay?"

"Haha!" I laughed. I couldn't help it. "Okay, okay." I opened my menu and sent the friend invitation to Sachi. After I confirmed that she had accepted it, I closed the menu and reached for the flower. This time she gave it to me without trouble. "I suppose I'll see you later then, Sachi. Try not to get lost on your way back to the Town of Beginnings. If you die, I'll never forgive you."

She pouted, exaggerating every movement. "Hmph! You just watch Mr. Beta Tester. Someday I'll pass even you!" And with that she turned towards the Town of Beginnings.

"You knew I was a beta tester?" I asked. I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing for my relationship with her. Some people looked up to the beta testers as people with good knowledge about the game like Klein. He noticed immediately that I knew what I was doing and followed me so that he could get some pointers. I taught him to fight intelligently. There were also some people that did not put their faith in the beta testers. Everyone knows that an MMORPG player plays for his or herself. That means to take the best training spots for themselves and milk it for all its worth, be it experience, gold, or items. Sachi didn't really seem like the kind of person that would play a lot of MMORPG games, but her quick adjustment to the situation made me rethink.

"I knew there were one thousand people that were allowed in to test the game before it went live known as the beta testers. The way you seem to know your way around the place, I could kind of tell that you were something else." She looked up at the starry sky with a long face. She turned to me and smiled again. "Don't worry. I trust you and your intentions. I'm really grateful that you were willing to share some of your time with me. Remember me every time you swing that quest reward sword. I'll see you later, Kirito-kun."

"Yeah, I guess I'll see you around," I replied. _I hope_. I thought to myself.

As she disappeared over the horizon, I returned to the small village where I'd started the quest. I gave the woman the flower which she mixed into her stew. She kindly thanked me for all of the hard work I'd done and gave me a few items, one of which was the one handed sword I was looking for. I quickly went through my menu and equipped it, substituting it for the newbie sword I was issued at the start. The time now read 21:05. It wasn't so late that I couldn't see anything, so I went back into the fields to fight the flowers again. They were becoming too easy, but to grind is the life of an MMORPG player. I relished in it.

The night drew on and on as I cut down monster after monster. More people had shown up, and the place was becoming crowded. No one noticed anything special about me. Not many people knew that the sword I wielded was the reward from the quest many of them were doing. As the POP started to decline, I decided that it was time to move on. I knew of one more city close by that I would be able to train around for a bit.

It was 22:56 when I arrived at the designated training area. The monsters here were level five but not particularly difficult. I was about a quarter of a level away from level four, so I rushed in. The Mega Mantis level 5 was a monster I had trained on back in the beta. They were about two meters tall with two long forearms able of extending to just about one meter. Their attack patterns involved using a quick combo of the right arm, left arm, them both together to attack. To compensate for the lack of variety in attacks, the Mega Mantis had a relatively high attack power, able to shave off almost one quarter of my hit points with a direct hit.

I killed almost fifty of the Mega Mantis before realizing I was too tired to continue. My supplies were running out at a frighteningly fast rate. As I grew more tired, I got hit more and more often. I headed into the village to find an inn to stay the night. After I paid the dues at the desk, I headed up to my room, went inside, and closed the door. I checked the clock once more before going to bed. It read 02:39. Exhausted I collapsed onto my bed. I set an alarm for 08:00 before falling into a restless sleep.

**December 22, 2022 [Floor 1, Town of Beginnings]**

Today was the first meeting since the start of the death game to find a strategy to defeat the first floor boss. It has been a month and we have yet to clear the first floor. On my own I have been grinding day in and day out to try to gain levels and money. I have reached level ten on my own, though I have no idea what level the others around me are. Your level is your life line in this world. Every night I stayed up later and later to take the best training spots while everyone else went to sleep. This was the moment many of us have been waiting for for the longest time.

I looked around at the crowd. There were quite a few people there of all shapes and sizes. Honestly, I thought that not many people would come to the meeting to defeat the boss for being afraid of dying. I was honestly still afraid of dying, but because I knew that death here meant death in the real world, I couldn't be afraid forever, or I would never get anywhere. I noticed a well groomed girl with dark blue hair in the crowd surrounded by four other guys. Sachi was here with her friends to fight the boss. My heart skipped a beat. I don't know why. But seeing someone like her at a meeting where we would plan out how best to preserve our lives in the upcoming fight made me want to protect her, to make her run away from this fight.

"Sachi! What are you doing here?" I tried to hide the concern in my voice. She was the first one in her group of friends to decide to start off and play the game to its fullest after all.

She turned to me and flashed another one of her radiant smiles. "Oh! Kirito! I'm glad to see you here!" She quickly brought up her menu and typed something out. Shortly after, I received a PM from her. "Kirito, how are you doing? I'm level six now! What about you? I know it's rude to ask about another person's level, but I thought since it's you, I would ask."

I hesitated for a moment. Levels in this game were really important. I would normally always keep my levels to myself so that I could always have the advantage when confronted by an enemy in a PvP situation, but I decided against my better judgment and replied. "I am level ten now."

Sachi was four levels lower than me. This was going to be the first fight against the first floor boss - the boss that prevented us from progressing in the game for over a month. The beta testers had complied data on how to defeat the first boss when they played before the game's release, and that was the data that was available to everyone in the guidebook in our inventories. The leader at the front of the crowd stood up.

"We are all here today for the same reason!" He shouted into the crowd. "We have finally managed to find the first floor boss, and we're here now to figure out the strategy to take him down!" This speech brought some cheers from the crowd. Taking the initiative he started to explain the situation. "In order to best preserve the lives of everyone here, please make a party of six! This will give everyone the best chance of survival as well as the best chance of defeating the boss!"

Everyone in the vicinity started to make parties. I looked around, seeing with horror that almost everyone had a full party of six. Even Sachi's group had found a sixth member and created a party. No one was left that I could party with. Then I noticed a cloaked figure on the same row as me, who appeared to not have a party yet. I scooted over to the person.

"Uhh, d-do you have a party yet?" I asked. The figure shook its head. "Would you like to party with me then?" This time the figure nodded. I opened the menu and sent the party request. The figure promptly accepted the invite. I noticed in the top left of my screen, just as it had with Sachi, I saw the name and HP bar of the other person. The name read "Asuna." A female name.

Now the leader held out the guidebook and held it out over his head. "This is the data that has been collected on the first boss! It has all of its attack patterns up to the point when its fourth health bar hits the red zone. It will switch attacks from its normal axe to another sword called a talwar. It will also gain a new attack pattern! If no one has any more questions, this will be the end of the briefing!" He snapped the guide book closed. "We will meet tomorrow outside of the boss dungeon at 10:00. That is all!"

Everyone stood at the last announcement to go prepare. Asuna quickly left the area and headed up the steps. Taken aback, I quickly followed her. We ended up going back to the close-by city. We bought some bread for dinner and sat down outside on the stone steps to eat. She took a quick bite out of the roll, stiffly chewing it while I opened my inventory and brought out some butter. It was a quest reward item from a quest in the last village I visited. It was delicious and reminded me that there were foods in the other world that I had to get back to. It was almost completely gone, two doses left. I offered one to her.

"Here, try this. It's good." I said, holding out the jar. She nodded and stuck out her finger over the jar. A small sphere of light covered her finger, and she spread it over her roll.

"B-butter!" she cried out. Not quite knowing what to expect, she bit into the roll. After only a moment's hesitation, she devoured the rest of the roll in a heartbeat.

While we ate I finally got a good chance to look at her. It wasn't much of a view to be honest, since she was always wearing that grey cloak over her body. From what I could see, she had a thin frame and was a little bit shorter than me. She wore a white hilted rapier at her left side, and I could see strands of orange-red hair sticking out the sides of her hood. She raised her head to look at me. I wish I could see her face, but it was covered by the hood and the mask of darkness where we ate.

"I guess we'll head in for the night then?" I offered. "There's an inn nearby that we can stay in for the night." Asuna nodded and stood up when I did. We headed off in the direction of one of the further off inns that was close to the boundary of the city. I was about seventy percent of the way to level eleven, so I was planning on sneaking out during the night to get to level eleven before the boss fight tomorrow. To my surprise, Asuna offered up no resistance to going off such a far distance while there had been an inn only fifty meters away from where we ate.

We entered the inn which was called the Blade-Sheet Inn, paid our dues at the counter and headed up towards our rooms. Of course we had separate rooms, but the thought did cross my mind to share a room and save money. I suppose it was for the best though. The time was now 20:09. I decided to wait an hour before heading out to grind in the fields.

As soon as the clock ticked 21:09, I went to door, unlocked it, and headed outside. I locked the door once more before I left the building and headed out towards the fields. Not many people were out this late, and the people who were were mostly couples that 'didn't want to leave yet.' No one gave even the slightest indication that they acknowledged my existence as I walked past them to the fields.

As I got closer, monsters started to appear. Because this was still the first floor the highest level monster I could find was around level seven. The Mutated Brine Bat level 7 approached me, flapping its giant wings. Unlike the bats I might have seen in the real world, these bats walked on the ground on its feet instead of hanging to the ceiling of a cave. It raised its wings in an intimidating fashion, then brought them down hard, dragging its giant body into the air. Wind rustled across the plain, ruffling the bat's grey fur. After a moment of waiting, it attacked.

Just as I was about to raise my sword to activate the sword skill, a blue-green streak flashed by me, knocking out half of the creature's hit points. "Switch," the figure said. I raised my sword and charged through the bat which was still trying to recover from the sneak attack. The light blue light left behind my sword skill cut straight past the bat, reducing its remaining hit points to zero. The creature brought its wings up again and froze, breaking apart into polygons and disappearing from the plain.

"I thought you went to sleep," the figure said. Asuna appeared out of the fog, rapier drawn at her side. As before I couldn't see her face, but I could feel her stare from under the hood.

"I… I could say the same thing to you," I stuttered.

"I don't know about you, but I wanted to be as strong as possible for tomorrow, I decided that I would get some extra training done tonight," Asuna said. The breeze ruffled the cloak drawn across her body. Red strands of hair fluttered around her head, reflecting in the light of the moon in the virtual sky.

"I was close to leveling, and I wanted to have the extra advantage tomorrow," I replied, sheathing my sword on my back. I glanced at my experience meter, noting that it would be about twenty more of those Mutated Brine Bats before I would be able to level up. Asuna nodded before getting back to work. Three more bats had spawned in the time that we were talking.

Together, the two of us took only an hour and a half to defeat the twenty bats I needed to level up. I didn't mention this to her when we started, but she noticed when I leveled up. A small notification box along with a few small pieces of confetti appeared to notify the event.

"Congratulations," was all she said before turning back to work.

For the next two hours we hacked away at the bats until the POP spawn in the area was nearly depleted. It was only then that we decided it would be good to head back to the inn and get ready for the fight later in the day. We parted from each other outside our rooms and went inside. After un-equipping everything, I crawled into bed, set the alarm once again for 8:00 and went to sleep.

December 23, 2022 [Floor 1, Boss Dungeon]

Being a solo player, I was one of the last people to arrive at the dungeon. The doors were already open where the first parties had gone in already to clear the way to the boss. Asuna was next to me, nibbling on another roll she'd saved from the night before.

"Let's go, we're late as it is," I said as I entered the dungeon. I heard her footsteps tapping behind me. After a few minutes of walking, we saw the boss door with the other parties already around it. Diabel was the center of attention, spelling out the last minute strategies for everyone. Near the front of the gate I spot Sachi and her party. I was about to wave, but I decide against it at the last minute. The boss would come first.

"That's the end of the strategy meeting!" Diabel called out to the crowd. "Let's head in and win! Remember, the person that gets the last hit gets the drop!" The crowd cheered as they charged into the room. The large imposing doors spread wide, allowing for the group to run in. When everyone was inside the room, the torches around the room lit up, drowning everyone in a blue glow.

Then the boss appeared.

The boss's name was up next to his hit point bars, Illfang the Kobold Lord. As the information had said, there were four of them. Diabel stayed in the back of the crowd, shouting out directions as we fought. With Asuna beside me, we charged in at the boss. We'd practiced switching in and out while fighting monsters the night before, so we were very familiar with each other's fighting patterns. Each time I hit the boss, I would switch with her, our swords mixing in a beautiful choreography of light and metal.

When my party was supposed to stay back, I looked around the room, looking for Sachi's party. I saw four of the five, and none of them were girls. I couldn't find Sachi. My heart sunk. She was gone. She had just started living in this world, and she was already gone. The closest member of her group lunged forward to block one of the boss's attacks, and I saw Sachi, squatting down in the middle of her party, crying. The roar of the boss was deafening, intimidating, and Sachi couldn't handle it. I was about to leave my post and approach her when I heard Diabel call out for my party to go on the offensive again.

_Sachi wasn't meant for this. She was true to her words when she said that she wanted to learn to fight. She's here now because of that, but she can't fight. Her heart was telling the truth when she asked me to accompany her. The way she looked away from me when she talked, the way her feet tapped on the ground; her heart knew what she wanted. It's pathetic really, yet… I can't let it end like this._

After a quarter of an hour of fighting, the boss's hit points was finally reduced to its last bar. Asuna and I took the lead. Sword skill after sword skill, sword hit and rapier, the two of us danced around the boss, defending and attacking in turn. Finally, the HP bar dropped into the red zone. The boss jumped to the very back of the room, away from all of the players. He dropped his axe and pulled out his reserve weapon. Instead of the talwar that the guidebook said it would be, it was a katana.

My heart skipped a beat. Diabel called for everyone to fall back as he jumped into the fray. I understood immediately. He was a beta player, trying to get the last hit on the boss for the rare item that would drop for the person to slay him, but he didn't notice that the weapon was different. He charged in, most likely not noticing the different weapon. He shouted a war cry, drawing his weapon back when the boss's attack pattern changed entirely. It jumped up towards the ceiling, dodging Diabel's attack entirely, and jumped down from the ceiling, slicing right through Diabel's abdomen. He landed right next to me. Raking my mind, trying to figure out what to do, I drew out a health potion and tried to hand it to him. He looked up at me with his cyan blue eyes.

"Heh," he huffed. "I guess you know what I was trying to do, don't you. I myself was a beta tester." He signed heavily. "I guess in the end I was wrong. All I did was try to get the last hit item, and I'll die for this." He breathed out, closed his eyes, and burst into polygons.

A burning anger grew inside me. Everything in my field of vision became sharper as I stared down the boss. The room was a mess. People were running around left and right, using health potion and restore crystals as the boss ran rampant around the room.

"Asuna," I breathed. I didn't expect her to hear me, but she appeared by my side. She nodded. The two of us charged for one last attack. Illfang slashed out with his katana to my right side. I used a sword skill to knock the attack back. "Switch!" I shouted. Asuna jumped in front of me and ran through the boss with her rapier. The boss recoiled as Asuna called to switch. I focused all of my energy into the last sword skill and ran through the boss with a flash of blue light. Illfang hissed and burst into polygons as he died.

As the boss died, I dropped to the floor. It was the first boss battle, and it we lost the leader of the charge. Was that supposed to happen? There was cheering behind me. Why were they cheering? We just fought against a boss and lost an important member. That person died in the real world too. Why were they cheering!?

There was mumbling behind me. They were singling me out. Yes, I was a beta tester. Was this the sort of ridicule I'd have to take as long as I was in this game? I started to laugh. I couldn't stop. The whole situation was so funny. They thought I was a cheater because I was a beta tester.

"Hahaha! Yeah…" I looked solemn. "That's right. I'm a beater." I finally checked the menu in front of me. I had gotten a black coat for defeating the boss. I went through my menu to equip it. With the new black coat on, I stepped towards the gate to the second floor. I heard two pairs of footsteps behind me. I looked back to see Sachi and Asuna.

"Asuna, I think that if you ever get asked to join a guild you should join. You're a strong player that should be one of the elite. Sachi, I don't know if clearing the game is for you. I saw you while you were fighting the boss, and if it's too much for you, it might be best to stop here. I don't want you to stop, but if it puts you in that much danger, I don't want you in the front." Putting my arrogance ahead of me, I stepped towards the entrance to the next floor and opened it.

After one month stuck on the first floor, those of us who were meant to be on the clearing party advanced. Those who were still afraid stayed behind in the Town of Beginnings. I didn't really worry about the two girls I left behind. Where they would go I have no idea. This game became all of our realities. This game could be cleared, but for the time being, we would be here.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

This is my first Sword Art Online fanfiction. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Feedback would be amazing, especially because this is a longer chapter than usual. I hope you all enjoyed and will keep reading in the future. I'll leave this story as rated M for later themes.

Truly yours,

Kirisaki Kyouko


	2. Arrogance and Re-Evaluation

Author's notes: So just for the sake of keeping this series interesting, as in the description, this story is to be told by both Kirito and Sachi, so this chapter will take a break from Kirito's point of view.

Floor One Hundred and Beyond

By: Kirisaki Kyouko

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**Chapter 2: Arrogance and Re-Evaluation**

**April 4, 2023 [Floor 11, Taft]**

Five months have passed since this death game started. Back when the beta was live, my friends from the computer club at school decided that all five of us should get a nerve gear system and buy the game. I wasn't much of a game player but loved electronics, so in the end I gave in and stood with them in line to be one of the few lucky ten thousand people that would get into the beta. Or that's what we thought. After playing for around three hours, Keita noticed that we didn't have a logout button. I couldn't believe what he was saying until I opened my menu and saw that indeed there was no button to log out. After the mass teleport back to the Town of Beginnings I knew we were all trapped.

A light breeze blew across the plain on the eleventh floor. My guild and I were hunting monsters. It was all thanks to my initiative to play the game as it was meant to be that my friends from the computer club were able to overcome their fear. I owed everything to Kirito. I knew their levels, but I hid my own. I was different from who I used to be. I couldn't be afraid anymore. Keita was the guild leader, but behind the scenes, I was controlling the growth of our group.

"Sachi! Stop spacing out!" Tetsuo called out. The mantis we were fighting struck out again with its long razor sharp arms. He raised his weapon to block the attack, getting grazed across his shoulder. I watched with disgust as a small chunk of his HP disappeared. I raised the mace from my belt and charged forward. Recalling the way Kirito taught me to fight, I concentrated on the movement I wanted and activated the sword skill. My mace glowed bright orange as it lunged forward, dragging me along for the ride. The mantis was still recoiling from Tetsuo blocking its attack. The mace struck the monster right in middle of its torso, cutting straight through it. The two halves fell onto the ground before breaking apart.

Virtual sweat covered all us as we trudged back to the town we were staying at. The sun was setting in what would be the west, casting long shadows along the ground. Looking up at my status meter, I marveled the progress I had made in these past five months. The blue experience bar below my name and HP was only fifteen percent away from level 20. The rest of the guild was level fifteen. I giggled, attracting looks from everyone else.

"What's so funny, Sai-chan?" Keita asked. For as long as I can remember, Keita has always called me Sai-chan. He knew it bothered me, but he still insisted on using it.

"It's nothing really." The smile slowly recedes from my face as we enter the city. Keita heads for the market place to sell the drops from today's hunt while the rest of the Black Cats of the Full Moon headed to the inn to get some food. The streets were buzzing with noise. Snippets of conversation could be heard as couples walked by, letting loose a giggle or two every once in a while. Vendors were still out in the streets, advertising their new goods. I saw a blacksmith showing off his newest mace. I was tempted to look at it, but the one I had was already of the highest quality that I could both use and afford.

Some of the other stalls that were setup included jewelry stalls, clothing stalls, and other various vanities. Taking a moment on the street, I stopped in front of one of the clothing stalls. The theme of Sword Art Online seemed to be medieval, but the clothing here was still beautiful. I glanced down at the clothing that I was wearing. It was a plain blue woven top with a matching colored skirt. I sighed and glanced at my coll figure. I had enough, but I need to save up for better equipment. Slowly taking my eyes away from the purple silken long-skirt, I hurried forward to catch up with the rest of the guild members.

The smells of food wafted up and down the street, mixing with the sweat of the hunters, and the pheromones of loves, a nauseous concoction of smell perfectly replicated in this virtual world. We soon arrived at the Hound Inn and went inside. Taking our usual spots in the back of the restaurant area, we ordered our food, waiting for Keita to come back with the spoils.

As a guild, we wanted to have our own guild house someday, so we went out every day to hunt monsters in the hopes of soon saving enough to purchase one. The front lines were already up on floor thirty, and even though I snuck out every night to train, it wasn't enough for me to catch up. I felt hopeless. With some cheek I told that boy, Kirito, that I would one day surpass him. I haven't heard from him since we departed back on the first floor, nor has he sent me a message.

_I wonder how he's doing. He seemed so comfortable in this virtual world. It was almost as if the fact that we'll die for real if we die here doesn't bother him at all. I don't know where or who he is really, but I can see him up at the front lines, fighting to free us all. _

Completely lost in thought, I didn't notice that our food had arrived. In front of the rest of the guild members was a simple bowl of soup and bread, enough to fill any reasonable member, but in my stupor I ordered something along the lines of a shrimp and rice dish. Without even thinking, I'd ordered a dish that I shouldn't be able to pay for. I quickly finished my dinner and headed up to my room before anyone else in the guild could really start asking questions. Inside my room I opened my menu to start planning the night away.

Kirito told me when I first met him that he was a solo player. I guess that means he goes out and trains by himself. It's most likely the most efficient way to gain experience, but it's so risky! Using map data that I purchased from an information vendor, I mapped out all of the monster POPs in the vicinity. I sighed, noticing that none of them were very close and were relatively low level. I sucked down my pride and opened up the friends list and scrolled down to Kirito's name. Beside his name was an option to send him a message. I quickly decided on what to say and typed it out.

"Hey, Kirito. I was wondering if you could give me any tips on solo leveling. I told you that I was going to pass you someday right? I know you're a solo player, and hoped you would be able to give me some pointers in tactics and safety. Love, Sachi"

My finger hovered over the send button as I re-read the message. Blood rushed up to my face as I read the last line. "Love." Why had I typed that? It was so natural to me to put that at the end of a letter, but this was far from a love relationship. I changed 'love' to 'sincerely' and hit the send button. I got a confirmation message saying the message was sent successfully which I closed and sat on the bed.

Maneuvering the menus was the first thing I learned how to do after I rejoined my friends and formed a guild. I made it a necessity to be able to equip and unequip everything in an instant. Just as I was putting on my gear to set out for my nightly training, a knock came at my door. Immediately I un-equipped everything and went to the door.

"Who is it?" I called out.

"It's just me, Ducker," someone replied from the other side. I opened the door for him and let him come in. instead of walking through the door, he stood there frozen to the spot. Emotional responses were a little bit overdone in this world, but as he stood there, his face changed from a pale white to bright red in a matter of a few seconds.

"D-Ducker what is it?"

He finally came to his senses and averted his eyes as if I was Medusa. "Y-you're not wearing much for clothing right now," he mumbled.

Glancing down, I saw he was right. I felt tears rising to my eyes. I screamed and slammed the door in his face, covering what I could with my arms, and hid under the covers of my bed.

_Stupid Ducker! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!_

I stood up and re-equipped everything. Taking the mace from my belt, I used my sword skill one hundred times in the solitude of my room. No one bothered me for the rest of the night. One by one, the members of the guild sent me messages telling me they were going to sleep. After I received the last one, I opened my door and headed out into the night.

As I returned to the streets, most of the vendors had packed up and left for the night. The air cooled down, but the system refused to let the players feel cold. I wove in and out of the stragglers hanging out on the streets and made my way towards the floor warp area. I quickly warped up to the fifteenth floor to try to grind out some serious experience.

The landscape of the fifteenth floor was entirely new to me. Around me were giant towers of stone shaped like the Stonehenge. Though I was in a safe zone, the entire floor was an open plain, even in the city. I headed out towards the moon, not taking care to detail the path I was following. After ten minutes of walking I came upon a group of Fero Moth ((level 13)) POP spawns. Glancing around me, I saw that there was no one around for as far as I could see. Drawing my mace out I charged in, streaking across the plain under the glow of orange light. The first Moth fell quickly without any problems.

"I can do this!" I said, raising my fist into the air.

For the next hour, I grinded out level twenty. Under the fall of night, all of the light effects became even more dazzling than they were in the day time. It was as if the weapons themselves were illuminated under the activation of a sword skill. Settling into a steady rhythm, the Moths fell one by one, adding to my revenue and items. Occasionally a health potion would drop, or a bonus one hundred coll, but aside from that, the drops were rather normal.

One hundred kills in, my life almost came to an end. The corpses of all of the Moths I'd slain over the past four hours were still lying on the ground. I took a double take, making sure I was seeing what I thought. As the one hundredth Moth died, all of the corpses started to glow. One corpse started to float up into the air, followed by another, then another. Eventually all one hundred corpses came together, and in a flash of light they transformed. What emerged was a Mutated Cocoon ((level 27)). My mace hit the ground with a dull thud. I followed shortly after. This was madness.

The cocoon started to shake. A small split appeared near the middle of the cocoon, spreading from the top to the bottom. The white threads holding the giant cocoon together split like spaghetti until the shell dropped to the ground, creating a cloud of dust. The dust slowly settled back onto the ground revealing the secret semi-boss monster, the Mutated Undead Moth ((level 35)). As I saw the level of the monster and my heart stopped. I'd trained for four hours and I was only just level twenty-one now. I was mentally tired, and then this thing appeared.

It took only a moment for the gargantuan moth to spot me. Its grotesque mouth opened, emitting an ear-splitting hiss. The grey wings opened wide, propelling the moth into the air. The exoskeleton appeared to be of a metal compound which would be weaker to a crush attack, but I couldn't think straight. I stared at the ground, vision blurring as I imagined the end. I looked up just as the moth started to move in. It tilted its head back and shot out a murky green ball of acid. I made no effort to dodge it, but the aim was off. The acid grazed past my arm, burning a hole in my armor and clothing. I gasped at the sudden numbness that was a byproduct of the would-be pain. I glanced at my HP. It had dropped forty percent from full with a graze of my arm.

"HELP ME!" I screamed into the night. It was 03:15; no one would be awake. "SOMEONE PLEASE! HELP ME!" I called out again. Tears were falling in torrents. I didn't want to die. "KIRITO! HELP!" I got out one last shout before the moth started to fly towards me. As it got closer I noticed that it had scythes on each of its appendages. The scythes cut through the ground as the creature approached, raking up the dust into the air. I closed my eyes and waited for the end.

Through my closed eyelids I saw a flash of blue light streak past; then there was the sound of something breaking. Slowly unwinding myself from my fetal position, I looked up to see a black figure fighting with the giant moth. Each time the moth attacked with its giant limbs, the man easily fended the attacks off, taking one more of the limbs with each strike. As the sixth leg of the moth was cut off, it flapped its wings twice to retreat. The man in the black drew his sword back; the blade starting to glow blue, and he lunged forward, passing through the creature, and out the other side. The moth hissed one more time before finally, with the sound of breaking glass, shattered into thousands of polygons and disappeared from the field.

"Sachi!" a voice yelled above me. "Are you okay? Sachi answer me!" That voice. I knew it, but where did I know it from. Someone was shaking me. Someone was slapping my cheeks and looking into my eyes. 'Who are you?' I wanted to ask, but I couldn't figure out what was going on. I gazed at the place where the moth had been just a moment before in stupor. Was this heaven? It looked like the same cursed game I was playing only moments ago. My field of vision changed. I was closer to the sky. Was I flying? Maybe I really was dead. I was drifting sideways, and there was something warm at my side. I leaned my head to the left only to meet resistance. It was warm. I buried my face in the warmth and nodded off to sleep.

Warm sunlight shone on my face in the early hours of the morning. I rolled over in my sleep to try and avoid the glare. I ran into something as I rolled. I finally opened my eyes and the black shirt of someone sleeping in the same bed as me came into view. As if startled by sudden bump, the person in front of me rolled over and faced me.

"Sachi…" he whispered. "Thank goodness you're alive." He put a hand on my head and ruffled my hair. He suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace. "After receiving your message, I thought you might do something rash, but I didn't expect you to be able to access the hidden semi-boss monster found on this floor. I'd never seen it before but I've read the requirements to finding it."

I pushed him away from me, ashamed that I could have done something so absolutely stupid. I rolled over, looking away from him and placing my hands over my heart.

"I couldn't do anything," I whispered to myself. I heard my rescuer shift in bed. "I tried so hard to surpass Kirito-kun, but in the end I couldn't even keep myself together to fight a semi-boss." I couldn't help but start crying. My life was hopeless. I ground out experience every night to get stronger. I was several levels higher than the rest of my guild, but I couldn't keep it together when I faced a strong enemy. "Why am I so damn hopeless!" I wailed.

The man behind me wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer. The warmth from his arm spread through the rest of my body. It wasn't large and muscular, but it was actually rather small. "Sachi, you're not hopeless. You're not a real MMORPG player are you?" He ran a hand through my hair producing a very pleasant tickling sensation. I started to relax. "I guess I can't blame you, but please try to be more careful."

"That voice?" I said. I turned around. "K-Kirito-kun!?" My heart skipped a beat, and my face started to burn. My mind was in a flurry of action. I just spend the night in the same bed as Kirito! I tried to roll away and ended up falling off of the bed. "Ow!"

Seeing my clumsiness, Kirito burst out into laughter. His laugh was full and bright, filled with genuine elation. The way his face lit up while he laughed drew me in. I studied his facial features in those precious few seconds where I saw Kirito genuinely happy. I saw the way his face dimpled when smile, and how his eyes would close up when he laughed. My heartbeat sped up as I watched him. I blushed. There was something magical about Kirito. His normal expression was one of mild depression, but seeing him like this, I saw his true self, so I smiled back.

"Well I suppose this would be a good time as any to discuss solo training then. How does that sound Sachi?" The time for laughter was over. Kirito's expression had returned to its normal half-depressed look.

"Uhh, yeah, that would be great…"I glanced at my internal clock. The time was 09:05. "But I really have to head back to my guild." I thought for a second. If I invited Kirito to join our guild, I could spend more time with him, as well as have someone around that I could really trust. "Would you like to come back with me and meet my other guild members?"

Kirito wore a pained expression on his face. In fact, he looked shocked.

"I… suppose I could come back for a while," he said. The dark expression on his face told me that he didn't want to go.

"Great!" I said, not giving him a chance to take it back. "Let's go!" I took his hand in mine, marveling the warmth, and dragged him towards the door. It took us about twenty minutes to get back to the Hound Inn. As I walked in the entrance, the other four members of the Black Cats of the Full Moon surrounded us.

"Now, now, who might this be returning with our star player?" Keita said, cracking his knuckles.

"H-Hey Keita! Not so fast!" I was startled. Keita has never been this hostile to someone before. "This guy saved me last night. I passed out on the street, but he didn't know where to take me, so he brought me back to his room and watched over me for the night." This was a lie, but Kirito made no move to correct it. He seemed to understand.

Keita lowered his long two-handed spear which he had been pointing at Kirito. "Hmph! If you say so, but don't let me catch you wandering around my Sai-chan again." To make his point, Keita spat at the ground in front of Kirito.

"Okay then. Take care," Kirito said while walking away waving his hand behind him.

"Keita!" I shouted. "That guy saved me last night, and you send him off pretending you're about to take his head off!" I was fuming. Keita gave me a hurt look.

"You don't even know if he did anything to you while you slept. He could have…" he paused. "Never mind. But you should be more careful when you're out alone with another guy."

"Keita, if you have something against me hanging out with other people, just go ahead and say it!" I shouted. "You've never been this rude before to anyone! If I knew any better, I would say you're jealous!"

Keita didn't respond right away, choosing instead to fiddle with his menu. I received a duel invitation a moment later. I looked up and stared into his eyes. "What is the meaning of this, Keita?" I hissed.

"You obviously want to become the head of this guild. If you win, you can take it, and I'll leave. But if I win, you'll become my girlfriend and never talk to that guy in the black again." Keita's face was entirely serious. I tried to see what he was thinking by looking into his eyes, but there was nothing there but rage, envy, and longing.

"Fine! If I win, then you have to give up on me and lead the guild. If I lose I'll be your girlfriend, but don't expect any favors from me," I spat back at him. "I couldn't care less about becoming the head of this guild. I just want us to become a respectable guild and participate in clearing the game." I raised my hand and accepted the invite, setting the mode to first strike. The timer appeared above us as we got into position. I quickly equipped all of my equipment and crouched down into a position for battle. Keita did the same, raising his spear out in front of him as if I would race straight at him and get stabbed in the heart.

The timer ticked down to zero, but neither of us moved. The other members of the guild stood around the ring watching intently, waiting for someone to make the first move. I stood my ground, sizing up Keita. His brow furrowed as he tried to do the same. I don't know if he was aware of the power difference between the two of us, but the fact he used a long range spear gave him an advantage. I didn't use a shield with my mace, favoring instead to use a two handed lunch attack for additional power. I decided on my course of battle. I would try to lure out one of his sword skills, parry, and attack back. One clean hit would decide this battle.

Keita crouched down and ran forward, holding his spear out in front of him. I held my mace forward and thrust upward, knocking the spear up and away from my shoulder where he was aiming. His brown eyes flashed a look of concern, but the moment passed. He spun around, flinging the blade of the spear at me, trying to catch me as I recovered. I ducked down to dodge then focused on my mace and charged at him with my Impale sword skill. He tried to block the attack with his spear, catching my mace with the middle of the spear's wooden shaft. Instead of breaking, the spear was flung out of his hand and into the air.

There was a span of two seconds before I could use my sword skill again. This is a condition I learned was called skill stun. A short period of time after using a sword skill in which I cannot make any attacks. Keita quickly went through his menu, almost at lightning speed, and equipped a new item: a sword. The fire in his eyes went from smoldering to blazing. He lunged at me with his sword. I barely caught the tip of the sword with my mace, knocking the blow away from my chest.

Keita was being too careful. He was refusing to use any of his sword skills. I narrowed my eyes and took a deep breath. As my mind cleared, I watched the direction that the attacks were coming from, dodged each in turn without using my mace, and looked for an opening to strike back. I stepped back to avoid a lunged stab. My heart jumped to my throat as I tripped backwards and fell over. Keita seized the opportunity and slashed through my left leg with the sword, ending the duel. He gave me his brightest smile and offered his hand to me. I felt a tear roll down my face as I took his hand and stood up.

"Keita?" I whispered in his ear. "What level are you now?"

"Haha, I thought you would ask," he smirked. "I noticed you were out training, so I decided to do the same. My level is now nineteen. Pretty cool huh?"

I gritted my teeth as I Keita laced his fingers through mine. He led us into the hotel where our meal was waiting.

_How can this be possible! I hit level twenty-one last night. I was beaten by someone two levels lower than me, and he didn't even use a sword skill! Now I'm stuck as his girlfriend, too. I'm so mad! Kirito-kun, what am I supposed to do now. I'm not even allowed to see you again._

"What about you, Sai?" He dropped the 'chan.' That's how close he thought we were now.

"I'm sorry, Keita-kun. I can't tell you. I'm still lower than all of you though; I always have been, right?" I couldn't tell him just yet how strong I was, especially seeing as how I lost so horribly to him. Training apparently wasn't everything in this game. To truly excel at this world, I had to be inherently good at playing VRMMOPRG's.

_I'm sorry, Kirito. I guess we couldn't be together after all. Thank you for everything you've taught me. I'll take it to heart and get stronger. _

Keita wouldn't let go with my hand until we got to the table. He finally let go and pulled back a chair for me to sit down at. The rest of the guild members assembled around us, no one quite sure of what to say. In front of me was the normal bowl of soup and bread that everyone else had. I ate the bland tasting food without much though then stood up to go back to my room. Before anyone could stop me I sprinted up the stairs into my room and closed the door.

The thought occurred to me that I should apologize to Kirito. I brought up my friends list and picked his name out to send a PM. The keypad came out, and I started to key in my message:

"Dear Kirito,

I sincerely hope that you can forgive me and my guild for the rudeness and hostility that they showed towards you. It turns out that after you left, Keita gave me an ultimatum with a duel. If I won, then he would leave me alone, but if I lost, I would have to become his girlfriend. Even after all of the help you've given me, I still couldn't win. Haha, I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. I just can't stand that all of this has happened to me. I hope you can forgive me for all of this.

Always yours,

Sachi"

As I hit the send button, I heard a knock at my door. Before I could ask who it was, I received a PM from Keita.

"Sachi

It's me. Please open the door. I didn't want to let everyone know what I was up to, so I sent this when I knocked. Please, please open the door.

Keita"

I sighed and moved towards the door and pulled the handle back. As he said, Keita was waiting outside the door.

"What do you want, Keita?" I couldn't keep the venom out of my voice. Keita flinched at my words.

"I came to apologize to you, Sai. May I come in?"

I stepped aside to let him into my room. He sat down on my bed and patted the area next to him for me to sit down. I closed the door and locked it before sitting down on the opposite side of the bed instead of next to Keita. He signed, obviously wanting me to sit next to him, but he stayed put. He had taken off his equipment and wore only a t-shirt and some shorts.

"Sai, I really can't excuse my behavior earlier today." He leaned back to get a better look at me. The springs of the bed creaked under his weight. "I was so envious when you came back with that guy in the black coat." He looked directly into my eyes. "I fell in love with you about a year ago when you first joined the computer club. Back then you were so shy. It made me want to hold onto you and never let go." I saw a pink tinge on his cheeks. "Sai-chan, I really love you. Is it really impossible for you to love me back?"  
He gave me an honest proposal. I agreed that I would be his girlfriend if he won the duel, so wasn't it only natural that I would accept? But here he was, giving me a choice to accept his feelings. I couldn't help myself anymore. I rolled over on the bed to get closer to him. My breath came in short breaths as his face approached mine. As Keita's face closed in on mine, his hand held me down onto the bed. He deftly rolled over, pinning me down with both hands as he lowered himself down over me. His hot breath buffeted my nose and eyelashes. He licked his lips before finally lowering his face to mine. Before I could make a move, his hot lips pressed against mine. The second they made contact, a message menu appeared before me asking if I wanted to send him to jail. I ignored the message and kissed back.

My body was starting to feel hot. My extremities were starting to go numb as we lie there lip locked on the bed. The system prevented Keita from removing my clothing which was a major relief, but as I closed my eyes, it wasn't Keita that I saw. As I sunk deeper and deeper into the kiss, Kirito was the person that stood out in my mind. The laugh he showed me earlier today; the way he took care of me; the way he forgave me after all Keita had done. Those were the qualities that I loved about him.

I nudged Keita with my forehead, breaking the kiss. "I'm sorry. I can't."

Keita's facial expression screwed up. His brow furrowed, creating enough wrinkles to wash clothes. His face fell and breathed a deep sigh. "I'm sorry too, Sachi." That was the first time he used my actual name in years. "I honestly didn't think you liked me either, and just now you proved that I was right. Was it the guy in black that you like now?" He didn't look hopeful, only accepting that this might be the case.

"You're right, Keita. The time I spent with him when the game just started and the time I spent with him last night only confirmed my feelings for him." Even though Keita was one of my best friends, I couldn't hold back. He had to understand. "Even while we were kissing, I could only think of him."

That was it. I drove the nail through his heart. He stood up and bowed before leaving. As he was about the door he turned back to me. "Thank you for humoring me, Sachi. Even if only for a little while. I still love you." He closed the door as he left, leaving me alone on the bed. I raised my hand to open my menu. The time was only 20:09. I decided to pass the time and go out in hunt. I didn't even matter if I died anymore, I just needed something to do to pass the time. Before heading out I sent Kirito a quick message.

"Kirito,

Thank you for saving me the other day. I wanted to ask you what level you are now. Like I said, I want to catch up to you, but when the Mutant Undead Moth attacked me I couldn't only sit on the ground and wait for death. You defeated it so easily, though. I am now level twenty-one.

Sachi"

_So much has happened today, but why do I feel so un-accomplished? Is it really all because I lost to Keita in a fair fight? This training really has to pay off eventually. Perhaps if I got something to boost my self-esteem, I would perform better. Honestly, though. It's almost as Keita said, except that I'm still weak; I'm still shy. I couldn't even come to terms with my own feelings until I had his shoved down my throat. Kirito, from now on, I can only hope that you watch over me as I get stronger. I will surpass you!_

I received a PM just as I approached the plains.

"Sachi,

I shouldn't really give out my level, but just for you, I'll share it with you. If you're only level twenty-one you're really starting to fall behind. Today I just reached level forty-three. The fights on the front lines are getting quite tough. We'll be clearing the dungeon to the floor thirty-five boss soon. I don't suppose your guild will be able to grind up enough experience for that by the end of the week. I hope you're doing well in your training. When it comes to fighting a large monster, just remember this: study the attack pattern first, then only once you understand how it fights do you engage it in combat. If you remember that, you should be able to defeat any monster, no matter how tough. Though I suppose the exception would be if the monster is simply beyond your capabilities. The Mutant Undead Moth I fought the other night was not this exception. Even at level thirty-five you should have been able to calmly handle the fight. Learn to calm yourself and take control of your own life.

Best wishes,

Kirito"

The moths were gone tonight, replaced by Tribal Lizards ((level 12)). To warm myself up, I started killing the lizards on by one with my mace, taking care to analyze the way they attacked before I started attacking en masse. To aid in my abilities to fight, I fought without sword skills for the first three hours on the plains. Without the familiar glow of orange light, the mace looked rather dull in the dim light of night. Experience was also slower than usual, but that wasn't what mattered. I managed to reach level twenty-three by midnight. This pace of leveling was faster than usual. Sinking into a trance, I quickly and methodically picked off each enemy as fast as the POP would allow them all to respond. Only once I felt comfortable fighting without sword skills did I start to use my favorite skill, Impale.

As the night grew on, my experience counter kept growing and growing. By 05:28 I had hit level twenty-four. I was still a long ways off from Kirito, but just by fighting like this, all night and alone, I felt closer to him than I had in all of the time we'd spent together.

Just as my mind was shutting down, another semi-boss monster appeared. From the ground a giant worm appeared. Instead of the fleshy membrane of a human world earthworm, the surface of the worm was covered in brown scaled. The top of its head had no eyes, but when it opened its mouth, rows of dangerously sharp teeth could be seen at least a meter in. The name beside it read Carnivorous Earthworm ((level 32)).

Numbed by the grind through the night, I stared up at the monster with dull eyes. The mouth on top of the creature produced a gurgling sound before it lunged forward at me. Remembering what Kirito told me, I dodged to the side, waiting to see how it would react. The worm swung its head around to try to knock me sideways. Instead of jumping up to dodge the blow, I jumped to right, over the body of the worm, avoiding its attack and removing any possibility of a counterattack. After two failed attacks the earthworm stuck its head into the dirt, resurfacing with a mouth-full. It chewed the dirt for a moment and shot out a sizzling ball of earth and slime. This attack reminded me of the Mutated Undead Moth, so I dodged as far away from the projectile as possible. As soon as it hit the ground, the grass started to dissolve next to the digestive juices soaking the dirt. This would be a long fight, but this was something I had to learn to do for myself.

Taking my mace, I charged ahead. I anticipated the forward lunge, dodging to the right just as it was about to attack. As its head struck the ground, missing me by a quarter of a meter, I struck the side of its head with my mace, reducing its HP bar a small fraction. The worm's next move would be to swing its head horizontally towards me, so I jumped left, barely clearing its massive girth, and landing on the other side. This time its head kept moving, far enough that I couldn't reach it with my mace. I decided to attack the base of the worm sticking out of the ground in front of me. The worm too more damage when I attacked its softer body closer to the hole. It shrieked in pain when my mace hit. I watched its HP drop a more significant portion after the attack at its base.

As a last ditch effort to hit me, the earthworm once again buried its head into the ground, chewing dirt to spit out as a projectile weapon. This would be the most dangerous attack, but leave it the most exposed. For two precious seconds after its head left the ground, it would have to work to put corrosive digestive juices into the dirt which I could attack its base. I charged forward just as its head was coming up out of the ground. I took care not to use a sword skill until I could be sure that it would land a finishing blow. In my two second period I made three swift attacks to the base of the worm, leaving only one quarter of its life left. A projectile just barely missed me as I used my Impale sword skill, passing cleanly through the earthworm and to safety on the other side. The HP bar quickly dropped to zero and the boss shattered into a thousand polygons, leaving behind on the menu for drops.

The first thing I noticed was that after slaying the Carnivorous Earthworm, I achieved level twenty-five. After I chose my skill points, I noticed a rare item in the drop rewards menu. The item was called "Raigon's Wrath," an enchanted mace which required a very high strength level to wield. I called up my stats screen from the menu to check the requirements. I just barely made the cut for wielding this mighty mace. I quickly fiddled with my equipment screen and equipped Raigon's Wrath. Compared to my other mace, Fortified Crystalline Mace, Raigon's Wrath weighed just a little bit more. It shone with a violent electric blue color, sizzling in the air. I pulled back my arm to use impale. Instead of turning orange like the other mace, Raigon's Wrath glowed toxic purple.

With my newfound experience fighting a powerful monster as a solo player, I headed back into town. The sun had risen to a respectable height in the sky. As the city drew closer, I could see all of the vendors laying out their wares in the streets. I checked my coll count and noticed that I had enough money to go to one of the real shops and have something tailored just for me.

_I've waited so long for this! I think tonight gave me the confidence boost I need to become one of the front line players. I gave up my one chance to be happy with Keita for this, so I have to make sure I make the most of it. Without Kirito's guidance before that semi-boss, I would have been a goner for sure, but today marks a new day. With the money I've made fighting monsters on the side away from the guild, I'll adjust my image to become the Violet Vanquisher of the Black Cats of the Full Moon guild!_

I picked my way through the growing crowds until I found my destination. It was a small shop, well known for tailoring custom orders. For an additional fee, they would be able to get the materials for you, but they preferred that each customer bring in the materials they wanted the clothing to be made out of as well as the design.

Through the course of my nighttime excursions, I acquired a large amount of A-grade fiber materials. In the description of this material, it would hold onto died colors very well with almost no distortion. High durability was one of the perks of the fiber. I approached the counter where a stiff looking female greeted me.

"And what may I be able to help you with today, madam?" she said with a snarky tone.

"I would like to have a custom made order please," I said as calmly as possible. The atmosphere of the shop wasn't particularly pleasant. I materialized the fibers and purple dyes onto the counter. "I would like a white blouse to go under a tight fitting violet blazer that will button right below my bosom. I would also like a tight fitting skirt that will stop above my knees of the same violet color using the dye I have here."

The owner of the shop nodded her head. She seemed to appreciate how straight forward my request was. It wasn't anything special, but the color scheme would be flashy. "Yes ma'am," she said. "Please step here behind the curtain and remove all of your clothing besides your underwear. I need to take your measurements." I walked behind the curtain she indicated and unequipped all of my clothing. The lady held out a measuring tape and started to take all of my measurements. For ten minutes, I stood on the podium as she measured every possible nook and cranny of my body. She finally rolled up the tape. "Please wait here for a moment," she said and walked behind the counter. She took out a needle from behind the counter and poked at the fibers and dye.

Five, ten, fifty, I lost count of how many times she poked the material. Eventually, the whole pile glowed bright white. I covered my eyes. When I opened them, I saw a beautifully made female suite. The violet matched perfectly with Raigon's Wrath. "Here, try this on ma'am. If you need any adjustments please let me know." I tried to stay as calm as possible as I equipped the new clothing. The skirt was perfect, holding everything close. I could feel the fabric stretch just enough so that it wouldn't tear as I walked. The blouse fit well, and as I had specified, the blazer buttoned up right below my breasts, pushing them up ever so slightly.

I examined myself in the mirror, marveling how I looked. I equipped Raigon's Wrath and held it out. I pointed it at the mirror. Everything was perfect.

"It's beautiful, thank you," I said. I looked at the total she wanted for the set of clothes. It was a bit steep but I could afford it. I distributed the 90,000 coll she asked for and left the shop. I could feel the stares of men and women alike as I walked back to the Hound Inn to meet the rest of the guild. I had been gone the whole night, and the person coming home was a whole new girl.

_Kirito, this is for you. I think I have overcome the fear that drove me nearly to extinction the other day. I have only you to thank. I am going to meet you up at the top of this world._

The four other members of the Black Cats of the Full Moon were waiting for me as I entered the inn. Two of them gasped; Keita looked away, blushing, and Tetsuo gave a low whistle.

I raised my new mace over my head, hearing the crackle of electricity that emanated from it. "Hey guys! Let's get crackin'!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

And thus ends another chapter of this fanfiction. I'm not sure where it will go, but I have a good idea. The next chapter will be from Kirito's point of view. As always, please leave a review if you would be so kind

Thank you all for reading,

K. Kyouko


	3. The Legendary Trifecta

I hope you're all enjoying the story. It honestly takes quite a bit out of me to keep writing this though. Best wishes to you all, and thanks for supporting me.

Floor One Hundred and Beyond

By: Kirisaki Kyouko

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**Chapter 3: The Legendary Trifecta**

Today marked the strategy assembly for the fifty-sixth boss. Warriors of all shapes and sizes filled the small stone cave with the leaders standing behind a makeshift rock table. The leader of the Knights of Blood guild, Heathcliff hid partially in the shadows, letting the subordinates handle the finer details of explaining the boss fight.

"There!" Asuna shouted, pointing to a place on the far right side of the map. The rapier at her side made a clacking sound as it bounced off the side of the table. "This is how we'll attack. Send half of the soldiers to this side, letting the Knights of Blood and Kirito take the front line." She ducked her head down for only a moment. I thought I saw her blush as she said my name. Murmurs passed through the crowd. This was a daring move to have such a small force of specialized attackers to try to take on a boss while having another division play the decoy. It was risky, daring, but ultimately, it was definitely a strategy worth thinking about.

The Knights of Blood guild held almost all of the most powerful players in the game. Almost. I was still one of the few solo players in the game, refraining from joining any guild. Almost a half a year ago, I received an anonymous invitation to join a small guild called the Black Cats of the Full Moon, but I turned it down. It was so small, it was almost as if it would be wiped of the face of the world in any moment. The average level of the guild was also only thirty-six. Even then, we were still on the thirty-seventh floor, but they were too weak. It wasn't the time to be settling down.

"Now, now, Asuna," Egil rebutted. "This is quite a rash decision you've come up with. Never underestimate the abilities of the bosses in this game. There's always the possibility that it will be able to wipe out the entire defense in a single blow." Egil's massive frame would have intimidated any lesser man or woman, but Asuna loved to fight. In fact, we had fought each other for strategy before every single boss floor from eight on. She turned her sharp facial features up and stared Egil down.

"Perhaps, perhaps!" She smiled. "But this isn't the time to be worrying. With the mysterious 'Black Swordsman' how could we possibly lose?" Everyone in the room looked towards me. I took a step back, waving my arms in front of me.

"H-Hey, Asuna, don't look at me. You're just as good with a single sword as I am."

She blushed. "Is that so?" She retorted. She really hated to lose. "Well then tell me, oh humble swordsman. How have you managed to beat me out of twenty of the total fifty-five boss monster drops if I'm so much of your equal? I've only managed to take ten for myself. You even took the magnificent Elucidator sword after Heathcliff held off the fiftieth floor boss for ten minutes by himself." She huffed and crossed her arms. "You're such a prick, you know that?"

I chuckled. "You know, Asuna. I would rather be a prick than a stuck up rapier user who still wears a school uniform in an online game." Laughs came from the crowd; Asuna pouted, blushing furiously.

"D-don't bring my fashion into this. It was my choice to join this guild," she hissed. More laughter came, but Egil stood up, silencing the crowd.

"Come on, you two," he said. The full rich tone of his voice could even calm down the fiery tempered Asuna. "Let us finish up this strategy meeting so that we can rest before the fight tomorrow." He rested each of his hands on mine and Asuna's shoulders, pushing hard enough that we had to sit down. "Now then," he gestured out to the crowd. "The monster we'll be facing is called The Geocrawler…"

"_Kazuto onii-chan!" Someone called from the other side of my bedroom door. The door opened, and Suguha walked into my room. Come on, dinner's ready. You can't stay up here all day and play games. I gave her a passive look, reaching back for the nerve gear, ready to put it back on. Suguha frowned at me and pulled out her kendo shinai from behind her back and charged at me. I rolled out of bed and jumped back to avoid her. She continued to chase me until I left my room._

"_Jeeze, onii-chan, why are you so hard to get to come spend time with me? I haven't seen you for twenty years after that game claimed you and all of those other people." I walked into the kitchen, Suguha following closely behind. Inside I saw a strange man and a couple children._

"_Hey! Kirigaya, long time no see." I looked at the man addressing me, but I couldn't put a name to his face. I couldn't recognize any one sitting in the room in front of me. I looked behind me to find an older woman. It wasn't Suguha._

"_Onii-chan? Is there something wrong?" The woman in front of me was addressing me as 'onii-chan.' What was going on?_

"_S-Suguha?" I couldn't believe it. I recalled our conversation as we were coming down the stairs. "Was it really twenty years? What all have I missed?" Everything came to me then. The man in front of me, the children – it all made sense. After I got myself stuck within the world of Sword Art Online, Suguha had managed to move on with her life. She'd found a husband and had children already._

"_Sugu… No… This can't be happening!" My hands clasped the sides of my head. I started tearing out my hair. "I had so much to live for!" I shouted._

A sharp impact with the ground aroused me from my sleep. Immediately I checked my HP bar in the top of my interface. Only a small fraction of my HP had been whittled away. Using my self-healing ability, I wouldn't even need to use a potion to restore it. Most of the members of the boss raid party had left already, leaving only Asuna and me in the cave.

"Jeeze, it took you long enough to come to your senses. Egil even offered to smack you around with his giant hammer for me," she said, waving a taunting finger at me. She giggled, relaxing the stern features she always wore during the strategy meetings. This was some of the most enjoyable time for me, the time when Asuna was happy.

"Well excuse me for taking a nap, miss," I said, bowing almost to the ground. "If I do remember correctly, you napped for an hour once, forcing poor old me to have to watch over your limp form until you woke up." She huffed, pouted, and refused to reply. "Come on, Asuna. Let's head back to the city and get something to eat. You sure worked up a storm trying to defend your strategy."

I walked out of the cave into the setting sun. Brilliant hues of orange and pink layered across the sky. A flock of birds flew overhead, black in the shadow of the sun. The rocky ground crunched beneath us as we walked back to the town in silence. About halfway there, Asuna started to hum. She closed her eyes as she walked, carefully placing each foot in front of the other. The breeze blew her long locks of red hair back from in front of her face. I traced her delicate features with my eyes.

Asuna stopped humming and took a deep breath. She opened her emerald green eyes and stared through mine towards my soul. For just a moment, she was acting like a normal girl. She wasn't like the girl that was trapped in an online virtual world. She pouted her lips and ran a hand through her long hair. Our pace slowed as the sun started to set. The pink and orange slowly faded away to indigo and violet. The game Kayaba Akihiko created, this world of Sword Art Online, captured all of the best aspects of the real world and integrated them into this 'game.' The mood created by the lightening was suffocating, though. Asuna kept fidgeting beside me. She couldn't stop twirling her hair around her finger.

"Say, Kirito? Would you mind partying with me for a while?" I saw a message appear in my menu requesting a party. I hesitated for a moment. As a solo player, partying with someone from a guild wasn't something I really wanted to do. Her green eyes sparkled in the moonlight. Her dark pupils replaced by the pure white of the moon. I longed to run my hand over her elegant features, but clearing the game was more important. I reluctantly hit the accept button. Asuna's HP and status bar appeared under mine in the game interface. "Thanks."

We continued to head in the direction of the city, ambling this way and that way over the grassy fields. A monster would occasionally appear only to be hacked apart by my sword or impaled by Asuna's rapier. Neither of us said anything as we progressed. Rain was a very rare occurrence in this world since Akihiko decided that it was an unnecessary event, but even so, it rained once every few months. The moon in the sky slowly disappeared behind pitch black clouds, shutting out all light. My night vision skill kicked in as all light vanished. I quickly looked around and found Asuna, squatting down on the ground. She didn't look scared, but she obviously couldn't see anything around her.

"Asuna, hold onto me," I said. She obliged and took my hand. The moment our hands touched, I could the feel the overbearing warmth of her body. A strawberry scent lingered from her hair; I took a quick sniff, hoping she wouldn't notice. "Come on. Let's make our way to a safe area. I don't really know what rain does, but it's certainly unpleasant to run around in."

Luckily there was a stone cave off in the distance only a few hundred meters away. Just as we got inside, the first drops of rain started to hit the ground. Even with such a low chance of rain, Akihiko managed to perfectly simulate the sound and smell of rain. I sat down near the back of the cave, taking off my jacket and putting it under me as a cushion. Asuna sat down beside me, still holding onto my hand for support. The rain continued to fall outside with no indication of stopping. The incessant hiss of the rain was strangely peaceful. It reminded me of the world we'd all left behind before this game. Asuna finally let go of my hand as we sat and listened to the rain fall outside.

The rain fell for hours and hours. Steam started to rise above the plains outside as the sun rose over the far horizon. Something warm made its way into my lap. I opened my eyes and saw Asuna curled up on the cave floor using my lap as a pillow. In the lull of sleep it was easy to forget about her hyper-aggressive personality during strategy meetings, and instead remember that deep down, beneath the hardened shell of a warrior, she was a sweet innocent girl.

I couldn't resist the temptation to take advantage of the situation. Slowly, I extended my hand and ran it through her gorgeous hair that I admired so much. It felt like silk beneath my fingers. I don't think shampoo even existed in this world, but the texture was almost unreal. I kept patting her hair for the better part of an hour as the sun continued to rise. My hand came to rest on her shoulder was I fell into a light sleep.

A few hours passed before the alarm I set the night before went off. The irritating beep aroused me from my sleep. My vision blurred as I rubbed sleep from them. Asuna was no longer on my lap. She was sitting on the floor a meter in front of me rummaging through her inventory. She wore a pleasing smile on her lips. Just watching her, a smile broke out on my face too.

"Oh! Kirito! Good morning," she greeted me. She held out a small package towards me. "Here, have some breakfast. I prepared them last night and made sure to add extra durability in case we needed it later." I opened the package, revealing a tasty looking sandwich. "Please try. I worked hard on it, you know." I bit into the sandwich. The ingredients looked rather strange, but the taste was unmistakable.

"A-Asuna, is this really mayonnaise?" I couldn't hold myself back. I devoured the rest of the sandwich. "That was some of the best food I've had in Aincrad for the longest time." She giggled, blushing only enough to give away her delight.

"Oh, Kirito, you have some sauce on your face." She reached over towards me and wiped something from my face. She offered her finger to me, covered in a sticky black looking sauce. I hesitated for a moment. "C-come on, Kirito," she moaned. "This is so embarrassing!" Her face quickly changed from pink to red as my lips closed around her finger. Just like when we held hands, her finger radiated warmth inside of my mouth. I caressed the tip of her finger with my tongue, absorbing the flavor from the sauce. Even after I'd licked all of the sauce from the tip of her finger I kept flicking my tongue over her finger again and again. Asuna had enough and pulled her finger away, turning around hiding her face. "T-that was a little unnecessary, Kirito…" she grumbled.

"Sorry, my fault," I said, laughing. "Come on, let's get going." I stood and checked to make sure we had everything. "The boss fight will start soon."

Asuna gave me another one of her flashy white smiles. "Okay! Let's get going!" She took my hand in hers and started to lead the way.

The dungeon that the boss resided in was deep within a lake cave. In order to get there, we would have to take the long way around through a mountain pass due to no one being able to get through the entrance in the water. It would take us an hour to traverse the vast plains just to get to the mountain and then another forty minutes at the least to reach the door of the boss. The two of us dashed across the meadow in the general direction of the mountain. After ten minutes of running, the mountain range started to come into view. Mist appeared about halfway up the mountains; the peaks being entirely covered in snow. Small mobs appeared while we ran, but we ignored them to save time. Just in case, I equipped the Elucidator to my back as we ran.

The ground was still wet from the rainstorm the night before. Occasionally Asuna would step into a pile of mud. With a loud squelching noise, she would get stuck for a moment. Aside from those instances, we made it to the mountains in record time, taking only forty minutes. The "side door" of the dungeon appeared before us. Together we pulled the doors apart and ran in. Inside the dungeon, small torches littered the halls, allowing enough light for us to see. Asuna yanked me forward, never letting her grip on my hand go. Our footsteps echoed off the cave walls, attracting the attention of many monsters and players alike. We probably attracted a lot of attention. She was an elegant beauty next to a scrawny looking guy in a black overcoat. At last we arrived in front of the boss door with fifteen minutes to spare. The Knights of Blood stood erect as their sub-commander came into view. The other parties turned their heads and acknowledged us as we approached.

The leader of the Knights of Blood took no time extending out his hand to me. This was both a formality and an invitation he offered to me every boss fight. He really wanted me to join his guild, but every time I would turn him down. I couldn't even respond to a guild request earlier, so how could I possibly accept his? I shook his hand and then promptly turned down his request to join the Knights of Blood. I think at this point it was just his way of being friendly. On the side walls, I saw Klein and his party of friends that I left at the beginning of the game. His red bandana made him stand out in the crowd. His favorite katana was sheathed at his side. I checked the time. We had five more minutes before we would go in for the kill. Only then did I notice Asuna was no longer holding onto me. I took the opportunity to go greet Klein.

"Klein," I said, waving in his direction. He broke off his conversation he was having with his friends and turned towards me. "How are you doing? It's great to see you haven't died yet." Klein cocked his head to the side and gave me a broad smile.

"Right back at you, Kirito, you soloing son of a bitch." He placed his hand on my head and messed up my hair. I batted his hand away. "Me and my friends have been grinding hard to raise our levels for this fight, you know? Heh, I bet we've even gotten stronger than you." He flexed his arm to make his point.

"Oh, I don't know about that. Leveling as a party takes much longer than doing it solo, right?" I smirked. I didn't have to flex my arm to make my point. Everyone in the vicinity knew that I was one of the highest level players perhaps only behind Heathcliff himself. I quickly typed out a message to Klein:

"Between you and me. I'm seventy-five, what about you?"

Klein received the message, trying to hide it from the view of the rest of his friends. He quickly typed back a message:

"Dammit, Kirito. We're only level sixty-eight. You really do level too fast, you know that?"

I glanced over in his direction and cracked a smile. He gave me a thumbs up before returning to his conversation I had interrupted. The conversation quickly died away as Heathcliff stood up and raised his shield once to call everyone's attention.

"We all know why we are here today," he started. His commanding tone drew everyone in. The aged look in his face dripped with wisdom. "The boss inside will be strong! But that does NOT mean that we cannot take him." The silence he commanded was suffocating. "We will be using a variation of Asuna's strategy inside. We will use the Holy Dragon Alliance's defensive core as the front lines to take the brunt of the damage. The high damage dealers from the Knights of Blood and other key damage members will then take the frontal positions and attack after assessing the boss's strengths and weaknesses." Cheers started to break out amongst the crowd. Heathcliff had to raise his voice to be heard. "Let us defeat this death game!" He raised his shield/sword combo into the air. A frenzy of cheering and clapping burst from the players. Heathcliff brought his shield down in front of him and opened the door. Cautiously, everyone followed him into the room. As the last person entered, the torches flared up with orange flame. The boss materialized in front of us. Beside it its name and health bars appeared. "The Geocrawler."

The Holy Dragon Alliance's defensive core rushed forward, shields forward, halting the advance of the boss towards the offensive core. The commander was shouting out orders as the boss advanced. Each member used a defensive sword skill to parry each of the boss's attacks. For a small two minute window, the offensive core stood back, waiting in the wings for the time to attack. I was only in a party of two which was strange. Usually before the boss fights we divided up and made proper parties so that we could more accurately measure how each person was doing and if they needed help.

The offensive line's two minutes quickly passed. Heathcliff raised his shield and brought it down again, signaling for us to charge. The offensive core, twenty strong, lunged in to attack the boss. The two-handed sword users and spear users stayed at a safe distance behind the defense core and used slow and powerful sword skills to chip away at its health. The short ranged weapon users like Asuna and me rushed in, dodging around the boss to flank it from the sides. Asuna and I took the right side. We switched in and out, attacking the boss in turn. Ever since the first boss, the two of us had always been in the same attacking party, and we knew each other's fighting styles well. No one ever told us when to back up or move forward. We were always in the fray, whittling away at the hit points of the boss little by little.

The fight took longer than usual, and I couldn't figure out why. We had the full attacking force of twenty. Then I noticed that we didn't have the usual front line. A small group of five people on the left side of the boss that all wore their own guild icon attacked the boss as a mini unit. They had their own defense core of three members and the last two were left to attack. The leading attacker wielded an electric blue mace out in front of her. Her purple attire matched perfectly as she executed her sword skill, charging forward in burst of speed and lighting and striking the boss, switching just in time for her back up to take the charge as she waited for the sword skill stun to pass. She pushed dark blue hair to the side as she waited to charge once again, revealing her soft features and fearsome eyes. They flicked over and met mine for a split second.

"S-Sachi?!" I gasped.

"Kirito!" someone shouted. Asuna smacked my shoulder. "This isn't the time to get sidetracked! Switch!"

I tore my eyes away from Sachi and looked forward. The boss was only its final fifty percent of the last health bar. This was the time where Asuna and I shined. I launched the first attack, the sword skill Vorpal Strike. "Switch!" I shouted behind me. Asuna, the Flash, took the lead, unleashing a sword skill of her own. Her rapier repeatedly stabbed the boss until with one final thrust she leapt backing. The HP bar had fallen into the red zone. I smirked and charged forward. With a final Vertical Square sword skill, the boss's health disappeared. It reared up and roared. It attempted to lunge forward one last time before it shattered into thousands of polygons. The light quickly faded from the dance of falling shapes. "Heh, Asuna. That makes twenty-one."

Cheers spread through the room. Heathcliff approached me and gave a wide smile. "Well done, Kirito. I really wish you would join my guild. We could certainly use a powerful front liner such as yourself." Once again, this was one of Heathcliff's formalities. He didn't even bother sending the guild invite this time. He offered me the honor of opening the door to the next floor. As I approached the door, I remembered that I had gotten the drop for the floor. The drop was one I'd never heard of before. I tapped the item for its description. "Love Impaler?" I read out loud. It was a white rapier with a pink hilt. It would certainly fetch a lot of money on the market. I turned around, trying to pick out Asuna in the large crowd of people. She was easy to spot with her flaming red hair. I caught up to her as she approached the door to the next floor.

"Asuna, here," I said, offering the rapier over to her. She gave me an odd look. It was one of adoration and confusion.

"K-Kirito. I can't." She pushed the rapier away from herself. "You got the drop fair and square. I couldn't possibly accept such a thing from you." She was very stubborn. I liked that about her. I sheepishly withdrew the rapier and put it into my inventory. Thinking hard about it, I decided it was best to keep the rapier for myself. For now at least. Its name might give her the wrong impression.

_It's called the Love Impaler, eh? If I gave this to her, would she think that I'm rejecting her? I can't say that I don't enjoy the time I spend with her, and she's a rapier user. I thought she would want a rare boss drop. But what is this feeling I'm getting from the Love Impaler?_

The 'chink' of swords being sheathed brought me back to my senses. I was surrounded by two different guilds. To my right stood Asuna, followed behind by the rest of the Knights of Blood. It was a ritual that the person who defeated the boss would open the door. Then the people in the person's party would be next, and the guilds that each person was in would follow after. To my left was the small guild led by a tall man with spiky brown hair. He gave me a pained looking smile.

"Ah, I see." I thought out loud. "You must be the friends Sachi was referring to when she told me she had to go back to you all those months ago." I gave a small bow to the leader of the guild, another formality. "I am Kirito, a solo player. The beater." I held my hand out. The man took it, shook it quickly, and let go.

"I am Keita," he said curtly. It was obvious he wanted nothing to do with me. "I was the one who sent you a guild request a while ago as a favor to one of our guild members." His face plainly showed his relief that I had not accepted the request. Keita fell over backwards shortly after. With a loud cry he fell to the ground with a soft thump.

"That is enough out of you, Keita," Sachi said. She pushed the hair out of her eyes once again and gave me a toothy smile. "Kirito, it's so nice to see you again!" There was something entirely different about her now. The timid girl I'd met back in the Town of Beginnings was gone. In her place stood a self-assured woman, trying to live her life to the best of her abilities. The hand at her hip and the way she spun her mace around gave off an aura of power. The striking contrast between her hair and the purple suit she wore drew looks from the audience. Someone whistled close-by. She turned to look at Asuna. "Oh, you must be the beautiful sub-commander of the Knights of Blood, Asuna!" Sachi's eyes quickly took inventory of Asuna's features. She pointed her mace directly at Asuna who in turn didn't flinch or shy away. "You're another person I'm going to surpass. You and Kirito both!"

Murmurs passed through the crowd at this declaration. Both girls stared at me as if I was the one that brought them together. I receive to PMs at the same time. I flicked my finger over each of them and quickly read them.

From Asuna:

"Kirito, who is this girl? Is she really stronger than me? I'm level seventy-one right now."

From Sachi:

"Is this the girl you ran off with last night? I won't let it happen again. I'm catching up to you, you know. I'm level seventy-three."

"Well now, this is an interesting turn of events," I said to no one in particular. Both girls leaned in towards me to hear what I had to say on the situation. "Let's just put it at this. I'm stronger than both of you right now, enough said. Now let's us three open the door to the next floor. This game isn't going to clear itself." I headed up the staircase towards the large door that would open a portal to the next floor. Sachi and Asuna followed close behind. At the top of the staircase I raised the Elucidator from my back and held it out in front of me, facing down the crowd below. I was shocked to see Asuna and Sachi both follow suit. I felt out the position for a sword skill and thrust my sword forward. Instead of the usual light blue, the Elucidator, a black sword, glowed black as sin and pierced through the air. Asuna thrust her rapier forward in a flash of white light. Sachi, last in line, thrust out her mace in a shower of purple light and spark. The three colors clashed in the air before disappearing.

"So these are the three beaters, huh?" someone called out from the crowd. "The three legendary soldiers of black, white, and purple." The rest of the forces mumbled in agreement. Heathcliff seemed to be the only person not perturbed by this turn of events. He raised both of his arms out and turned around.

"Praise these three!" he exclaimed. "These will be the people that will save us all from this living hell!" Cheers burst forth, drowning out any attempt for him to continue. Our names could be heard amongst the din. I turned my back to the crowd. With Asuna and Sachi by my side, I opened the doors and stepped through.

Sachi and Asuna materialized next to me shortly after I appeared on the fifty-seventh floor. I quickly disbanded my party with Asuna and turned to them. "It's really been an honor to party with you, sub-commander." I couldn't keep the solemn expression off of my face. After the first boss when I gave everyone a common enemy to hate, the beater, I thought it would be better for everyone else, but they decided to join me. No. They weren't really beaters. Neither girl had been a beta tester. They were just better than the rest of the average players. My role was as a solo player, and I didn't need either of them beside me, sharing my burden.

"Sachi. You're welcome. I glad I was able to help you become strong. I hope you take care of the rest of your guild with gusto." Her smile faded. She could tell I was trying to say good bye to the both of them. They opened their mouths at the same time to protest, but before they could get a chance, I sprinted out into the new floor. I couldn't hear any footsteps following me, so I slowed down after a few kilometers and examined my surroundings. The fifty-seventh floor was a jungle. Not even a forest, but a dense, dark jungle.

It was still mid-day, even after a long boss fight, but light was strangely absent from this floor. I gazed upwards towards the canopy which cast a green hue over everything. Droplets of water fell down occasionally, condensed water that was heated in this greenhouse and dropped back down on poor bystanders like myself. I had the advantage by opening the floor. I got to be the first person to explore the best hunting grounds and could sell the map data later to the guilds and information brokers. I headed out in a random direction, taking care to map out my surroundings.

The first monster I encountered was a Jungle Boar ((level 59)). Unlike the boars back in the first floor, these boars had long ivory tusks protruding from their mouths and stood two meters tall. It grunted as it spotted me and scraped its foot against the ground. I didn't back away from its intimidation stance so it lowered its head and charged. I adjusted my position using minute movements, barely dodging the boar as it passed by. I drew my sword from my back and stabbed the creature through its eye as it passed. The HP bar of the boar dropped significantly, but it didn't die. It skidded along the ground and came to a stop three meters away. It lowered its head again, ready to strike. Before it got a chance to attack I dashed forward, pulling back the Elucidator, ready to stab through the boar. As I channeled the system to activate the sword skill, the same phenomenon occurred. The sword skill was black instead of blue. In a flash of black on black, I passed through the boar, cutting its head clean off. Its limbs flailed for a moment before it shattered and disappeared. I noted a miniscule increase in my experience bar. This would be a good place to train. The fact that I could notice an increase in my experience bar after only one kill meant that these gave a relatively large amount of experience.

I continued my way through the dense jungle, using my sword to cut through the vines that crossed my path. The jungle seemed to have no end whatsoever. There was the town behind me when we teleported into the floor, but after that I saw no civilizations anywhere. Not even an NPC could be found around the jungle. I sat down on the roots of a tree to rest. My thoughts wandered back to the way Asuna's hair felt as I ran my hands through it. Through the wind, battles, sweat, and grime, it still felt as fluid as silk. I remembered the sweet strawberry smell, imagining the shape of the fruit in the real world. There were of course fruits in this world that tasted like strawberries, but for the sake of it being a game, the strawberry flavored fruits looked nothing like a strawberry. In fact the in game fruit looked closer to a lime which really threw me off when I bit into it.

I breathed a heavy sigh before forcing myself off the ground and trudged forward again. There were a few more encounters with the native monster POPs which I duly noted on my map. None of them gave a significant experience gain, so I gave them little notice and didn't even bother remembering the position on the map where they resided.

My mind moved to my main menu. I hadn't checked in a while, but I was close to leveling up to seventy-six. I decided to aim for at least eighty by the end of the week. I was very close, so I headed back to where the Jungle Boars were and started hacking away. As I thought, these were significantly harder to kill than the boars on the first floor. First of all, their hit points were so massive, that even my superior strength level and equipment took two strokes to finish it off. Second of all, they tended to move in packs, making it very difficult to pick just one off and kill it. If I tried, the other boars would move in to defend and attack. I fought until night fall when I decided it would start to become dangerous. Especially out in a new floor away from a safe area, people were almost never alone for fear of being killed. I took every precaution due to only being a solo player, increasing my detection skill as high as I could, occasionally taking priority of my swordsmanship skills. After falling another boar, I received the messaging saying that I'd leveled up to seventy-six. I quickly distributed my new skill points and pulled out a crystal. Usually I would save an item like this for an emergency, but because it was late at night and I didn't want to be out in a new floor in an unknown region, I teleported out. Bright light surrounded me as I teleported out of the fifty-seventh floor back down to the thirty-fifth where I resided.

I moved towards the center of the town where the big information brokers liked to hang out. I spotted the one I usually went to and tapped her on the shoulders. Her hooded figure turned around. Though I couldn't see her face, I could tell she was happy to see me.

"Oh, Kirito," she said in her usual mysterious tone. "What brings you here? Do you have anything new for me?"

"I have some new map information for the fifty-seventh floor as well as some information on the sub-commander of the Knights of Blood and the offensive coordinator of the Black Cats of the Full Moon, Sachi." I offered her a display version of my map data. If I could see them, I would bet her eyes were lit up at the sight of the new map. Having contacts with the front line was the lifeline of an information broker and this girl was no exception. She approached me a long time ago and offered me a very good deal on some information I was seeking. From then on, I decided to go back to her whenever I could find her. I would later learn that she always resided on this floor.

"This is absolutely marvelous," she whispered. "No one is able to map as fast and as accurately as you, Kirito. Usually the maps I get this early after a floor has been cleared are very shoddy and not very well filled out. You have at least ten monster spawns as well as about thirty percent of the non-safe zone mapped out. This will be very helpful. How much do you want for this?" She opened her menu and offered a trade to me. I put up the map data.

"The usual I suppose," I offered to her. She obliged, putting for her 50,000 coll into the trade menu. We accepted the trade, and the screens faded back into the air. "Thanks." I was about to walk away when she grabbed my wrist.

"You said you had some information on Asuna and the other girl, yes?"

I paused. I did say that, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to let that information out yet. I decided it was best not to part with that information quite yet. "I'm sorry. I think I will hold onto that information to myself for a little bit longer. You're a very good information broker. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." With that I disappeared from the information trading circle and headed towards the outskirts of the city where my house was.

My house wasn't very fancy. In fact it was rather drab. I only ever slept there and used some of the storage containers, so the rest of the house was bare. There was almost nothing on the walls, one bed in my room to sleep in, and the kitchen. As I approached my front steps, I saw someone standing outside my door, looking into one of my windows. I coughed, and the person jumped.

"May I help you?" I asked. This was a safe zone, so even if the person tried to attack me, I couldn't get hurt and I could simply send the person to jail. The person turned around and stepped into the light that beamed down from my porch light. In a fashion that she seemed to have adapted with her new personality, Sachi brushed the hair out of her eyes and gave me a shy smile.

"Hey, Kirito. I asked Asuna where your house was after you dashed ahead. She didn't really want to tell me, but I teased her into it, so here I am." She brought both of her hands behind her back and clasped them together, looking at the ground rather than at me. "I-if I'm intruding too much I can leave!" she said.

"That won't be necessary, but I will be having a talk with the sub-commander sometime soon." I opened the door to my house. I paused. The door wasn't locked as it usually was. I was shocked. No one had been able to break through my security until now. I walked into the house, waiting for someone to come out and attack. Sachi and I walked carefully through my small home. We walked into the living room where I had a comfortable chair and a couch. Someone was sitting on the chair. I flipped on the lights and drew my sword. As the lights came on I dropped my sword. "A-Asuna? How did you get in here?" Acknowledging that we'd walked into the room, she stood up.

"We need to talk about what happened back there in the boss's room," she said sternly. Her brow was furrowed in a very pained expression. Her usual light and playful features were masked by dark shadows. "Ever since you left us on the teleportation pad on the fifty-seventh floor, I've been receiving nonstop questions about whether or not we're in league with you." She tapped her rapier on the ground twice. "I know the reason that you set yourself apart from everyone else, and I appreciate you carrying this burden. I just don't know if I want to be called a beater like you." She gave me a wistful look. The burden of being in the league of a beater like me was seriously weighing down on her.

"Perhaps we should all just no associate with Kirito outside of boss fights?" Sachi put in. I didn't like this idea very much. It wasn't just because two of the few well known girls were my friends, but I didn't want to give up people I cared about just because of a miscommunication. "Or maybe a public message saying that we aren't associated with him at all!" This idea I liked better. I nodded my approval without saying much. I couldn't do anything to solve this problem. This would be up to the two of them to find out what to do.

"I think I could make the public announcement for you two if that's what you want." They both looked at me with quizzical looks. "I suppose it really is your fault for following me up to the top of the stairs, but the least I can do is help to try to clear up this misunderstanding." Asuna and Sachi looked at each other, trying to determine the best way to handle the situation. Asuna pouted and crossed her arms. Sachi pursed her lips and fiddled with the buttons on her blazer.

"Actually," Asuna started. "I think it would be best if we did nothing. If it really was all just a misunderstanding, then the situation should pass over by itself. All we have to do is act normal as if none of this every happened. Being associated with Kirito isn't really a bad thing. All they were really saying is that we were the three leaders of the fight with Heathcliff kind of as a figure head of my guild." I found myself nodding at this realization. We were all strong, but I was the solo player. In the end I had to be the strongest.

"I think that would be the best course of action, Asuna, Sachi." I said. "Hopefully this will all pass over, and everything will return to normal." The girls looked relieved. Asuna's facial features relaxed giving her thirty years back. Sachi once again brought her hands behind her back and smiled. "Well I guess it'll be best if you two get going then. It's getting quite late." I walked towards the front door and opened it. The two girls walked through and bade me goodnight. I closed the door. If I was going to stay the beater, I had to get stronger. They both sent me their levels tonight, and they were very close to me. I had to do something that would put me out ahead. I had to risk going out tonight and leveling at the Jungle Boars. I rummaged through all of the storage areas in my house, collecting every crystal I had. After checking to make sure I had an emergency teleportation crystal, I headed out towards the floor portal.

"Here goes nothing," I said to myself. I faced forward. "I am THE beater!" I called out as I warped to the fifty-seventh floor.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

I'm quite happy with how this turned out. I think the tension is building up quite nicely, but according to Rin, talking about a work in progress is 7 years of bad luck haha. Feedback is greatly appreciated. Review or send me a PM with your views or opinions. I'll try to update soon.

K. Kyouko


	4. The Fork in the Road

I hope you're all enjoying the story. Perhaps I'm not the fastest writer out there, but I do hope that you all enjoy and appreciate all of us fanfiction writers out there. Thanks again

**Floor One Hundred and Beyond**

By: Kirisaki Kyouko

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**Chapter 4: The Fork in the Road**

**December 12, 2023 [Floor 57, The Winding Forest]**

Days passed since the clearing of the fifty-seventh floor. Then weeks. Then months. Kirito was right when he said that if we left the situation alone, people would forget about it. For the first few days it was rough. Even the members of the Black Cats of the Full Moon ignored my existence. It did give me some more time to train by myself, but instead I stayed cooped up in my room to think. I was afraid to go outside and train without protection. It was terrifying knowing that my name was well known across the world of Sword Art Online as the Violet Vanquisher. It was a name I had come up with myself and shared it with my guild members, but someone leaked the name to the press. Whenever I showed up at an area to train, the parties training in the area would give me a disgusted look and leave.

The closest encounter I had was a week after the clearing of the fifty-seventh floor. Kirito had sent me his map information so I could train on my own on these Jungle Boars. When I arrived, there was already a high level looking player slaying them en masse. As I approached, he stopped and raised his sword, pointing it directly at me. I stood in place, gauging his strengths for a worst case scenario.

"Who are you?" he shouted. Venom dripped from his voice. It was unnatural. The rough edge to it made me hesitate. According to Kirito, not many people should know of this place yet, and only the front line players tended to fight near the front lines.

"Sachi," I replied. I attempted to hide the fear in my voice, something I'd gotten much better at after the tri-beater incident. Evidently I failed.

"Ha!" The man spat onto the ground. His voice lowered to a deadly whisper as he continued. "You're one of them. One of those girls in league with the beater." He lowered his sword a small fraction. "Coming here to take my hunting grounds? I paid an arm and a leg for the specifics on this training location, you know." He gestured out with his arms. "I bet you seduced the beater into telling you about this place, didn't you?" He punctuated his statement by jabbing his sword in my direction. "Honestly, I should clean you of those impure clothes." He smirked, licking his lips. His eyes were flicking around, mapping my body and looking for weaknesses to exploit. "How about it? Come spend some quality time with me." As he took a step towards me, I took a step back. "What's this? Is the Beater's girl too good for me, too?"

"I do not belong to Kirito!" I snapped back. I drew Raigon's Wrath from the holster at my waist and pointed it in the man's direction. I noticed that all of the Jungle Boars had spawned again while he was talking. "As for you though, I don't think you should train here any longer." Sparks started to lace the head of the mace. The yellow lighting quickly turned blue, hissing as it met the oxygen in the virtual atmosphere. The mace glowed a dangerous purple as I raised it up. "Thundering Demise!" I shouted. Bolts of blue lighting burst from my mace into the sky. The lightning returned to the earth almost instantly, striking down every Jungle Boar within a thirty meter radius. I heard the shattering of at least fifteen such boars. A small amount of coll was added to my pile with a tiny spike in experience in the top of my interface.

This was my newest sword skill after achieving level seventy-four. It was a weapon specific sword skill that used an enchanted boss drop as a medium because magic did not exist in this world. I discovered it by accident as I was fighting down in the lower floors for a while. My guild was ignoring me, but Keita still asked a few private sessions to learn. He refused to make eye contact, but I couldn't turn down a request from someone within my own guild, no matter how much they despised my existence. About halfway through our training session, Keita congratulated me on leveling up. He didn't know what level I was, but he saw the level up message. He gave me a pat on the shoulder, averting his eyes so that he wouldn't have to look at me and wouldn't see my level as I chose my skill points. I checked my sword skills list and noticed I unlocked a new one.

"Sun… da… rin… di…. Ma… i… su? Thundering Demise?" I wondered aloud. As I read the description, it specified it was for an enchanted mace with electric typing. As I thought back to the equipment I had, it hit me that Raigon's Wrath had those qualifications. I drew the mace from my holster and followed the flow chart, explaining how to use it. It said I had to channel my thoughts into an electric current. This would appear on the head of the weapon. From there I had to imagine creating a lightning storm and thrust the lighting up towards the heavens. I tried several times without avail. Keita stood watching me struggle. No matter how many times I tried to channel the electricity or thrust my mace into the sky, nothing happened. In a surge of fury, I closed my eyes and gripped the mace as tightly as possible. I imagined my mace as a lightning rod and tried to channel electricity through it. I could taste the electricity in the air before I could hear it. I opened my eyes and saw blue sparks tracing the head of the mace. I brought the mace below my hip as the diagram had shown, and I was relieved to see that the mace glowed purple, activating the sword skill. I didn't know what would happen when I released it, but I thrust the mace into the air. The blue lightning burst forth towards the black sky, illuminating the area for three hundred meters around. Without a specific target, the lightning fizzled and disappeared in the sky, but it didn't matter. I mastered the sword skill.

"Sachi, what in the world….!" Keita exclaimed. Thundering Demise was a very unusual sword skill. Unlike most sword skills which involved moving closer to the enemy and striking them directly, this one could be used from afar on multiple enemies. It could honestly be considered a magical attack. I re-read the description of the skill to confirm. It gave no details as to the specifics of the skill.

"It's the new sword skill I just unlocked. It's called Thundering Demise," I explained. "I'm not quite sure how it works, but wasn't it magnificent?!" I couldn't keep the smile off my face. Keita stared dumbfounded at the mace for a moment before he moved his eyes to look at me.

"It certainly was," he admitted. I caught him staring at me. He noticed and turned away, blushing. He immediately drew his sword and went back to fighting the monsters in the field.

_I guess your feelings for me haven't changed, Keita. I'm sorry but I don't think that I will ever be able to return them. Just as it was when you did have a chance, I could only think of him. Now he and I are closer than ever. Maybe not in the way you and I are, but deep down, I think that only he can be the one for me. _

The man stared me down once more. "Well that was rather rude don't you think?" He recovered much faster than Keita did. He started walking towards me, sword still pointed at my neck. "You trounce up to my training ground dressed like a cheap stripper and kill off all of the spawns with some gypsy magic?" He made a rude gesture and stopped ten meters away from me. "This is why I hate people like you. You think just because you know more than us normal folk, you can treat us differently" He spat again, which landed just before my shoe. "I should just get rid of you now, Violet Vanquisher-san. There's no one around for kilometers. No one would even notice that you disappeared."

I was panicking on the inside, but I couldn't let it show to someone like this. If a high leveled player such as me were to show fear to what he thought was a "commoner" then I might lose all of the reputation that I'd worked so hard to build up. I kicked up the dust around me and gave him a cold stare.

"These training grounds are for everyone," I said coldly. "Just because you were here first doesn't mean that someone else can't share this area with you." I lowered my mace. If I held it up against him he would think I was threatening him. "The only reason I used sword skill to clear this area was so that I could have a nice one on one conversation with you." I put my mace onto its holster on my waist to make my point. I wasn't going to threaten him at all, I just wanted to talk. This would be a good chance to figure out what the rest of the Sword Art Online community thought of Asuna and me.

"Okay, okay. If you really only wanted to talk you should have just said so from the beginning," he said, waving his hands in front of him. He sheathed his sword and walked up to me. "So what is it you want to talk about, Vanquisher-san?"

I had to think about this for a while. I couldn't really just come out and say that I wanted to know what the rest of the SAO world thought of Asuna and I. Asking that would be overly obvious as to what I wanted to know. I decided on a different strategy than a straightforward question.

"What do you and the rest of the casual players know about what's going on the front line right now?" I asked. I hoped that this would be a good enough conversation starter. If it was, then I would be able to gain the knowledge I sought without doing anything drastic. He gave me a quizzical stare.

"About the front lines? I know that they're working hard to clear up the fifty-eighth floor right now right? I mean this floor just opened up a week ago. That's why I had to pay so much for the details on this training area." He scratched his head. "The main front line is made of the two strong guilds. Knights of Blood and the Holy Dragon Alliance right?" I nodded, confirming what he said, but I made no comment that would influence his interpretation of the front line.

The man thought for a while before continuing. "But after them, there are a few other groups that are consistently on the front lines helping out. One of them is led by the samurai Klein with his small group. Then there was the black swordsman who is a solo player, Kirito." His brow furrowed as he thought more about what he knew. This was good information for me. It didn't seem like the average person knew really what was going on with the front line. For all they cared, someone was going to beat the game and save them without having to lift a finger themselves.

"But then there was this new guild that joined the front line," he said. This startled me a bit. I didn't really know what he was talking about. It hit me then that it was my guild that was the new one on the front line. "The information broke I go to told me this for free when I purchased this training information. She said that the guild's name was the Black Cats of the Full Moon led by a moderately tall guy about 170cm tall with brown hair. He wields a spear and is a part of the offensive defense in his party."

That description pretty much summed it up. Looking at the guild listings, Keita really was the head of the guild by default. No one bothered to try to turn away the leadership from him after I took over the training regimen for our guild. They saw how strong I was when I came back from that one night of hunting. After seeing that, they were convinced that we could fight our way to the front lines and help clear the game. I was quite glad that finding out the members of the guild was a bit harder than finding out the name of the guild and the leader.

"Anything else?" I asked. This was a good experience, hearing just what there was to hear. This guy was a little strange though. It was as if he was holding something back. All he was telling me was straight facts with no opinions.

"It was rumored that the Violet Vanquisher, that would be you, were a part of that smaller guild that fought on the fifty-seventh floor. I heard some of the front line soldiers complaining that they had to tank the boss for much longer than they usually had to because where a full attacking party should have been, there were only two members attacking the boss. The other three people were defending for the attackers."

"What about the Knights of Blood guild?" This was what I wanted to hear. I could tell in the way he described my guild that it wasn't really the opinion of the more common folks that hated Asuna and me. It was actually those on the front lines that despised us for being great. They hated us for becoming well known while they were all the nameless tanks from the Holy Dragon Alliance. The spiteful front line members were simply using the casual players as medium to spread their sinful ideas about us.

"Well they are the strongest guild right?" He looked over at me, probably thinking that I would explain everything to him. I stayed silent and waited for him to continue. "They make up the majority of the strongest offensive players in the game. This is a contrast to the Holy Dragon Alliance in that they are the strongest defensive group in the game. The fact that they are such polar opposites means that they need each other and work together to beat the game."

His conclusion wasn't really wrong, but it was more than that. Whoever was controlling the game behinds the scenes probably watching this conversation right now. This was what he wanted to hear. That would mean that his plan was working right? The fact that his man here in front of me thought that the two guilds existed and were created by the game master to beat the game after they both amassed enough power. This was the point that he was wrong. Yes the two guilds were opposites, but it wasn't that either guild needed the other. Heathcliff himself held off the boss on the fiftieth floor by himself for a total of fifteen minutes as we tried to kill it. As it was, the Knights of Blood most likely didn't need the Holy Dragon Alliance to beat the game. There had to be something missing.

"Is there anything else you need to know, Vanquisher-san?"

"My name is Sachi," I snapped.

"Ah, I apologize, Sachi-san. "

I thought for a bit. I did really want to know what he thought about the Knights of Blood, but now wasn't the time for that. I had a lot to think about in the meantime. I checked my coordinates on the map and looked for the next closest place to train. Kirito mentioned that there were some stronger monsters around, but they were either dangerous, or too far out of the way for a normal night's hunt. I spotted a camp a kilometer away that looked like a decent spot to train. I turned back to my conversation partner.

"Well thank you very much for talking with me, Mr?" I stopped. I didn't know his name, so I hoped that he would fill it in for me. Unfortunately he did not oblige me, and I was left there looking a little silly. "I'll leave you to your training then. Good night." I turned a quarter of a circle to my left and started running into the jungle.

Kirito had mentioned that he used his sword to help hack away at the jungle as he ran through and mapped the area, but it seem that it had no effect. As I ran through, I ran into branch after branch and vine after vine. I tried to use my mace, but I simply couldn't cut through the thick vines the way a sword or a spear would. I tried using some of my sword skills to cut through the vines with a little bit of success, but it was such slow work, I gave up and just tried to squeeze my way through.

After two hours of wandering through the dense jungle, I finally found the destination I was looking for. I could hear a waterfall off in the distance, adding a soft hiss to the rustling of the leaves in the canopy high above. I was glad that I'd taken Kirito's advice and leveled up my night vision skill. In this darkness, a normal person would have tripped and fallen to their death by now. I pushed through the growth and stood at the top of a giant cliff. I gazed down over the top and spotted the monsters I was looking for. Kirito's description of all of the other monster's spawning area was surprisingly accurate. There didn't seem to be a clear way to get down to the monsters short of jumping down. I checked my inventory once more, confirming that I had a teleportation crystal. The water was about a one hundred meter drop from here. I took a deep breath, braced myself, and leapt off the cliff.

**December 24, 2023 [Floor 50, Algade]**

A few days ago, Kirito sent me a surprise message inviting me to come over and celebrate the Christmas holiday with him and someone else. I was so excited that Kirito would send me a message, I immediately sent back a reply saying that I'd love to go. In my excitement, I forgot to ask who the other person was. Kirito confirmed that we would be meeting at his house on floor fifty in Algade at 19:30. Immediately I headed back to the clothing shop that made my suit and had it touched up. Clothing didn't really get worn out in this world, but just knowing that it was in top shape made it seem like I put a lot of effort into the occasion.

Unlike many shops in the real world, the shop keepers in Sword Art Online didn't really close shop on holidays. In fact they would make more money by not closing on the holidays, so it was always a competition between them to attract customers. I browsed through all of the stalls, searching for something Kirito might like. His weapon of choice was a long one-handed sword with high weight and durability. As far as I knew, he already had sword matching that description, and I couldn't find another one that even came close in stats around the marketplace.

Something caught my eye in one of the far corners of the shopping area. It was a small novelty shop that sold trinkets and other fashion accessories that had almost no practical value in the game. After sifting through the various contents, I found a slightly worn black scarf. I thought carefully, trying to imagine Kirito wearing such a thing. I decided that he probably wouldn't wear it, but there was always the chance, right? I quickly paid the shop keeper and took the present with me. There wasn't really a way to wrap it, but because we all had our inventories, I placed it there.

A few hours still remained before the set meeting time. The streets in Algade were crowded with people shopping. I couldn't keep myself from following all of the couples with my eyes. The way they looked at each other made me sick with jealously. It wasn't the burning sensation that Keita told me he had when he saw me with Kirito. Instead, seeing the happy couples depressed me. Love was such a bitter-sweet emotion as long as I could remember. My memories before Sword Art Online were limited because people didn't talk about the real world here, so all of my memories of love were tainted with jealousy and regret.

_This reminds me of when I was just starting out in this game. I had no idea what to do without someone holding my hand through the entire process. Here I am again, lost in the midst of things, but this time there isn't anyone here that can help me. I wish my mother was here to give me advice. It's been so long since I've talked to her. But can I really be thinking like that? I have to clear this game first._

"Excuse me, Miss?" I looked up. In front of me stood a handsome looking man. Judging from his facial features, he was probably in his early twenties. He stood about 180 cm tall with dark brown hair. He had a very gentile face, much different from the man I met over a week ago on the fifty-seventh floor. He wore a battered brown leather coat and slacks. If we could feel the cold, he probably would have died of hypothermia already.

"Yes?" I replied. I couldn't keep back a faint tinge of pink from my cheeks.

"I noticed you've been sitting here for a while," he said. "I was thinking perhaps you got stood up." He offered out his hand. "If you would like you could spend the evening with my friends and me."

"Oh, I'm really sorry," I answered. "I was just passing the time by people watching here. I'll have to decline your offer. I have plans for the evening already." I gave him a small bow. He shrugged it off and walked away. As soon as he was out of earshot I let out a sigh of relief. That was the last thing I wanted to do: go off with some stranger to spend the holidays with.

My impatience grew with each time I checked my clock. I still had an hour before we were all supposed to meet. What was worse was that because it was a social event, it was actually rude to be early or even on time! I remembered that from what my mother taught me some time in the distant pass. By arriving late, it allowed the host to fully prepare for having guests, easing some of the stress of hosting. I didn't have enough time go out training, and I wasn't really in the mood, so I continued to sit on the bench.

I didn't really know why I was so eager to see Kirito anyway. It wasn't as if we were particularly close. But there was just something about him that intrigued me beyond all imagination. He never tried to look flashy or appeal to the masses. In fact he dressed down; so much so that some people thought he was a much lower level than he really was. Any way you looked at him, Kirito was a pretty normal person. The only thing remarkable about him was that he was one of the highest level players in the game, consistently on the front lines clearing floors while being a solo player.

I think my fifteenth birthday passed while playing this game, but our features didn't change at all while we played. I still had a very young face, as did Kirito. In fact, his facial features were so soft, that he almost looked like a girl. The way he walked around in just a leather coat and a sword on his back made him look defenseless. I didn't want to be around him to protect him, and I also didn't really need him around to protect me anymore. I couldn't put my feelings into words, not yet.

The hustle and bustle on the streets was extremely monotonous. The only variety here came from the people walking around. Some would be wearing fancy armors, fancy clothes, or holding onto something exotic to attract attention. Besides that, there were only the sounds and smells of the vendors in the plaza. I started to count the people walking in and out of the plaza to pass the time. After fifteen people, I lost my place and had to start over. Every time I thought of Kirito, I would lose track and be forced to start over. Again and again, I lost my place, eventually losing track of how many times I'd lost track. After refraining from looking at the clock for as long as possible, I glanced at my user interface and was relieved to see that the time was 19:49. I heaved a huge sigh and started to make my way over to Kirito's house once again.

Kirito changed houses from the time I last visited, moving from the comfortable thirty-fifth floor to the fiftieth floor. I thought the reason for this was to be closer to the front lines. I checked the time once again when I knocked on the door. It was 19:54. Perhaps I pushed it a little bit too far for being what my mother liked to call being 'fashionably late,' but it was too late to change that now. Kirito answered the door within seconds. He gave me a warm smile and opened the door wide so I could enter. The smell of a roasted boar wafted through the house. The furnishings were just as scarce in this house as they were in the last one. The previous house was a bit smaller, so the lack of furnishing made the house look absolutely deserted.

He led to me to the kitchen. The lights were on, and the smell of food grew stronger and stronger. I didn't think that Kirito had put any of his time into cooking, and I was right. As I stepped into the kitchen, I saw the Flash, Asuna, carrying the dishes over to the table. When I arrived, she was about half done setting everything up. The table was covered with various dishes. From the looks, they were very different foods from those that we would normally eat around Christmas, but in this world, any food was a luxury.

"Sachi!" she called out. "I'm so glad you made it. I don't know what Kirito and I would have done if you hadn't shown up. I made so much food!" She gestured out at the already full table as she tried to fit another plate of steamed vegetables onto it. I couldn't help but giggle at how silly this was. For a small celebration for three people, she cooked enough food to feed the entirety of the Holy Dragon Alliance for a week. "Kirito, everything is ready. Come on let's dig in! I'm starving." Asuna pulled out a few serving utensils and pushed them into each of the bowls and plates. "Help yourselves," she said.

I reached for the vegetables in front of me and started to dish them onto my plate. The food in this world looked nothing like their real world counterparts, but the tastes of certain vegetables transferred over quite well. I picked out a couple that looked something like broccoli before passing the plate onto Kirito who was dishing out what looked like mashed potatoes. Asuna handed me a plate of bread. I nodded my thanks and took a roll from the pile. I took a particular interest in the boar's meat, dishing out a rather large serving for myself. Within moments, all of our plates will full to overflowing with delicious looking food.

"Thanks for preparing everything, Asuna," Kirito said as he started digging into his plate. "I fweally coon't do if wifout you," he continued after stuffing food into his mouth. Asuna blushed and looked away. Kirito gulped and took a sip of his wine. "I'm serious. Everything is amazing!"

"I… I'm glad that you enjoy it. It really was my pleasure making everything."

"It's really delicious, Asuna," I added. I was very surprised after digging into the mound of food on my plate that a lot of it really tasted like some of the foods from the real world. The seasoning on the meat tasted exactly like soy sauce. "The sauce on the boar tastes exactly like soy sauce," I decided to remark. I felt a tear roll down my face as I thought about the real world. It was the general rule of thumb not to think about or discuss the other world while playing Sword Art Online, but try as I might, I couldn't completely erase my memories of the other world.

"Yeah!" Kirito added. "How did you do it?"

Asuna looked a little bit flustered. It was odd that someone like her wouldn't be used to receiving compliments from other people. She avoided our eyes and twirled her finger around in her hair, trying to come up with an explanation that would please us both.

"Well recently I completely mastered the cooking skill, so I've been experimenting with every possible ingredient I could get my hands on. Through this experimentation, I have been able to discover a sauce that tastes like soy sauce, mayonnaise, butter, creams, and a few others. It's really not that impressive."

"No, Asuna you're wrong!" I cried out. "This is exactly the kind of food that I've wanted to eat for the longest time since getting trapped in this world. I've missed the food of the real world. This is the close I've come to tasting that food in the longest time! This is even more impressive than Heathcliff holding off the boss on the fiftieth floor…" I trailed off as both Kirito and Asuna started to give me strange looks.

"Maybe you're right, Sachi." Asuna gave me a kind smile and lowered her fork. "I really liked cooking back in the real world, but here in this world, there really isn't much to cooking. I prepared the entire meal we're eating in about ten minutes while cooking the old fashion way would have taken nearly six hours. It's really marvelous, though it does take some of the fun out of cooking when it's all done for you by the system." She grimaced. Perhaps she was thinking about what she would have to do to prepare a meal like this in using a real stove.

An hour passed. Then another.

We filled our wine glasses at least three times during that time. Because the Nerve Gear was directly attached to our minds, it would be a really simple feat for it to just slow down our thinking capacity a little bit to simulate being drunk in this world. As we sipped the wine, I felt as if I was slowing down. Everything I did felt sluggish. Our conversations started to lose meaning as the night progressed. Asuna's cheeks were permanently pink. She moved with a slight wobble as she cleared the table.

"S-say, Kirito?" Kirito who had been finishing the last few drops of his fourth glass of wine looked over towards Asuna with the cup still to his lips. He gave her a quizzical 'hmm?' inviting her to continue. "N-never mind," she stuttered. She gave me a quick glance with slightly disapproving eyes. Her eyes quickly changed for a look of disapproval to one of only mild disappointment. "Well then, why don't we exchange gifts?" she offered.

"That… sounds like a pretty good idea, Asuna," Kirito replied. His motor and cognitive skills also seemed impaired. As he rose from his chair to move to the living room (if I could call it that) and nearly tripped over himself. He laughed and rubbed his head looking embarrassed. "Here we go," he said as he sat down on the couch. Asuna beat me to the other seat on the couch, so I sat down on the sofa chair on the opposite side of the coffee table. She quickly materialized an item from her inventory and offered it to Kirito. He took the parcel and started unwrapping it. His fingers fumbled over the folds of the paper as he tried to open it in his drunken stupor.

When the packaging finally fell away from the gift, Kirito was left with a small trinket in his hand. He held out the ivory white necklace into the light to get a better look at it. I got up out of my chair to get a closer look at it. I studied the delicate carvings on the pendant. I gasped as I finally noticed that it was a white ivory miniature rendition of Kirito's Elucidator.

"Asuna, it's beautiful!" I exclaimed. I wanted to take it in my hands and study it further, but it wasn't mine so I held myself back. "How on earth did you manage to get something like this made?!" Kirito still hadn't said anything about it which made me worry a little bit. Asuna also wore an anxious expression as she wait for Kirito to say something. The two of us waited. And waited. And waited. Ten minutes passed and Kirito still said nothing. Tears were welling up in Asuna's eyes. She feebly raised her hand towards the necklace to take it back.

"Kirito! You IDIOT!" I shouted. I brought my hand back and slapped him across the face as hard as I could. Because Sword Art Online used a strength value system by stats, my slap which might have knocked him down in the real world sent him flying across the room and crashing into the far wall. Of course because this was a safe zone he would take no damage and the house was an immortal object so nothing broke. He clutched the necklace to him as he collapsed onto the floor. "Asuna put so much thought and effort into getting you that gift, and you can't even say ANYTHING?" I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to beat Asuna's feelings into his tiny little head.

I clapped my hands to my mouth as the realization hit me. It was so obvious, but somehow I'd managed to miss it. Asuna also had feelings for Kirito. I chanced a quick look at her. Her face had fallen somewhat as she looked down at Kirito. She didn't even move to help him up. He just lay on the ground without moving.

"Kirito?" Asuna whispered. "Please…" She sniffed as her tears started to fall. "Please say something, Kirito." Her eyes begged for a reply, but Kirito wouldn't so much as look up from the ground. Finally he pushed himself off the floor and walked back over towards us. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

Kirito wrapped his arms around Asuna's small frame. I felt the air stir as he pushed her down onto the couch. "Thank you, Asuna. I'm sorry I didn't say anything. I was completely at loss for words." Asuna couldn't handle it anymore. She started to cry in earnest, weakly pounding at Kirito's chest.

"Stupid… stupid…. Stupid…" she said as her fists bounced off of him.

I felt like my heart was tearing. This was as good as any confession right? Two people who obviously liked each other were finally acting upon their feelings. I turned and dashed out of the room as fast as my legs would allow. I could hear the two of them start kissing as I moved through the front door and slammed it shut. I continued to run, past the housing district, past the marketplace, heading towards oblivion. I knocked down countless people as I ran, not bothering to stop and apologize. I couldn't get myself to believe in the reality I was living in. I worked so hard for all of this, so why did it feel like everything I'd done was falling apart?

I ran for what felt like hours, heading deep into the lesser known territories of the fiftieth floor. This particular floor was mostly known for its lodging, so no one would disturb me if I ran outside of the city boundaries. It didn't take long for the plains to recede behind me and for the trees to overtake the scenery. What little light was left in the day quickly disappeared behind the canopy of the towering oaks and maples. I blinked tears from my eyes as I ran. As soon as my eyes closed, I tripped over a root and ran head first into a tree. I noticed a small decrease in my hit points. I gulped, remembering that this was not a safe zone. I curled up on the ground and cried.

I cried until the tears no longer came and sat up. I fumbled through the menu interface with shaking hands and materialized the gift I was going to present to Kirito. I buried my face in the soft black material, taking no comfort that I wasn't able to give it to the person that it was intended for.

"Ah, what a pleasant sight," a sinister voice said from behind me. "I thought tonight would be a good time to hunt for loveless losers, and ho and behold, I've found one." I slowly turned my body around and came face to face with a man carrying an extravagantly large knife. He licked the length of the blade and gave me a hungry look.

"W-w-w-what do you want?" I stuttered. I tried to think of a way out of this. There was nothing. My mind went blank.

"What do I want?" He pointed his blade out towards me. "Well obviously I just want to take down one more selfish front line player that makes the rest of us look like trash. Heck!" He spat at the ground, hitting me in the side of the face instead. "I created this damn guild so that we could hunt down defenseless pray like yourself. People like you with the guile to come outside of the safe zones after dark and try to make an extra pretty penny for yourselves." He kicked out hard, knocking me back against another tree and driving the breath from my body. I balled up tight, gasping for breath. My hit points took a sharp drop at the impact.

PoH looked very thoughtful for a moment. He started walking towards me, each step slowly and carefully calculated to build up the moment. Fear shot through my body as he got closer. "That..." he started. "And I just love to kill people. There's no proof that I killed anyone in this game, and since we're trapped here, we're not really bound by any real laws anyway." He drew the knife and stopped a meter from me. I was still coughing on the ground. There was no pain, the system in the game made sure of that, but there was a very uncomfortable numbing feeling as well as the inability to breath.

"Get up, scum," he commanded. "Come on get up!" His voice was harsh and filled with hatred. "You're one of those front line scum. Perhaps I should just kill you here without giving you a chance, but what fun would that be. Get up and fight, you worthless piece of shit." He reached down for me and lifted me up by the collar of my blouse. He shoved me against the tree and after making sure that my feet were on the ground, dropped me and backed up a step or two.

I couldn't believe that this would be my end. Having survived so long on the front line, taking hits from bosses and creatures alike, I would die here hopelessly fighting for my life against the leader of the largest player killing guild in the game. My only choice left was to fight PoH, so I pulled my mace from its holster on my waist. "Fine," I spat back in his general direction. "I'll show you the real strength of the front lines!" I was shouting now. I needed to convince him, no, convince myself that I was going to win this fight. It didn't have to be a kill, I just had to scare him off. I thought I knew exactly what I had to do, I just had to hope that I would be able to pull it off.

"Heh," was all PoH said before dashing in with inhuman speed. During the time it took me to draw my weapon and prepare myself, he'd taken the opportunity to hide and get the upper edge in the fight. I stopped to listen from where the sound would come from. I could faintly hear something approaching from the left, so I glanced over with my eyes, keeping my head still to waste as little movement as possible. As I thought it wasn't really him coming from the left, but a ploy to make it seem as though that was his plan. My hands shook violently as I gripped onto my mace. I would only get one shot at this. I made a quick sweep with my eyes, still listening for any sign of PoH giving away his position. I finally found him as he drew his knife back and dashed straight at me.

He lunged forward with the knife aiming to cut me completely in half. I blocked with the handle of the mace. Sparks flew from both of our weapons as he kept moving past my body and back into the trees. Something was off though. I heard the mace block the knife, but I felt a breeze passing through my body that hadn't been there before. I chanced a look down and saw that something had cut across my chest and managed to cut away the lower half of my blouse. My health bar had taken a tiny dip as well. This wasn't turning out like I had thought it would. I thought that the leader of the Laughing Coffin would fight me with honor and dignity, but it was too much to ask of from the leader of a murder guild.

My cheeks burned with anger. Not only could I do nothing in my situation, he was also humiliating me. He held out life in front of me, and I was falling for it. I was desperately trying to grab what he dangled in front of me. He charged again with this knife. This time I tried using the Impale sword skill to knock the attack back. Raigon's Wrath glowed the trademark violet as I lunged forward. As if he expected me to try something like this, PoH jumped to my left, dodged the sword skill, and hacked down with his knife. I felt the blade tear through my lower back to my thigh. My hit points fell into the yellow zone as I came crashing down onto the ground. A new status had been added to my status bar. Instead of the normal paralysis that the Laughing Coffin were known to use, PoH's weapon had a damaging poison on it. This would be my last chance to attack before he could land a final blow.

I thought back to the days when I could spend time with my friends. I thought I was much happier back then when I didn't have to worry about clearing the game and keeping face. Trying to be on the same level as Kirito really was only a dream for me. There was already someone that held his attention. How could I have won? Asuna was a much more beautiful girl. She was tall and wore a very commanding aura. I had only a cheap imitation of that aura at best.

_Kirito, I really think that it was because of you I was able to make it this far in this game. It's more than half complete now, and I'm so happy that I was able to share the front lines with you, if even for such a short while. The enemy in front of me now is one of the deadliest and most notorious villains in the world of Sword Art Online. I can't even think to hope that I will be able to overcome his power or even escape. Even so, I send my prayers to you. You and Asuna both. You were like parents to me. I tried to be a good child, but just as a kid will say "Ewww gross!" if his parents start kissing in front of him or her, I ran off when I finally realized that my feelings for you will never be returned. I'll give it my all, but I think this is goodbye. I… I really wish I could have given you my present. Merry Christmas, Kirito. I'm sorry. _

Tears fell from my eyes as I stood up one last time. Raigon's Wrath cackled as electric sparks danced over the surface. I gazed with both eyes straight forward. I knew who my enemy was, and I knew that I wanted to shoot to kill. The only problem was that I didn't know where he was. As my sadness and frustration escalated in my hopeless situation, the sparks covering the mace increased. Soon the entire mace was buzzing with a constant stream of electricity. I opened my eyes and ears as wide as they would go. My eyes almost popped out of my head as I flung the mace upwards towards the nighttime sky. "This is for you, Kirito!" I screamed at the top of my voice. My hit points were whittled down to only one quarter left. The poison had finally stopped ticking away, but it was too late to run now, anyway. "THUNDERING DEMISE!"

Unlike the previous times I used this sword skill, which sent a few bolts of lightning up towards the sky and came back down to smite one or multiple foes, electricity stemmed from Raigon's Wrath engulfing the entire forest in harsh blue light. Shadows could be seen in every direction as the light traveled here and there, all coming from the mace I held above my head. I heard a horrible shriek someone nearby, then I heard another. A total of three people cried out after releasing the sword skill. I heard two bodies fall to the ground with a soft thump, but I didn't hear the last one. My heart skipped a beat. Now that I thought about it, there would be no reason for the head of a murder guild to be out without some support, especially since the enemy was one of the front line members.

I took a moment to listen carefully for the sound of any advances. I heard none, so I sprinted as fast as the game would allow me towards the safe zone of the city. As I ran through the forest, I saw one of the bodies that fell out of the tree. I could tell by the guild marker that he was definitely one of the Laughing Coffin members. I also noticed that he was under a short duration paralysis condition. My mace had saved me. Its electric properties saved me by paralyzing the enemies long enough to escape. I finally made it within the boundaries of the safe zone.

"Sachi, there you are!" Asuna cried out. She ran as fast as she could and wrapped her arms around me. "You ran off so suddenly. Neither of us knew what happened to you. You didn't reply to any of our messages. You weren't in a dungeon, but it was dark, and we had no idea where you were!" I could feel tears falling on my head as Asuna clutched onto me. Her body was trembling. "We thought you were lost forever. Kirito wouldn't…." She stopped. "W-well never mind that. I'm just glad that you're safe."

This only confirmed my fears that I was the one that needed protection. Asuna was so much like a mother figure to me, and she couldn't be all that much older. I spotted Kirito at a lamppost on the far side of the plaza, looking out into the vast expanse as if he was searching for someone. Asuna and I walked over to him. He heard our footsteps and turned to greet us. No tears were falling from his face, but I could tell that he was extremely relieved.

"Sachi," he whispered. "Thank goodness." He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a tight embrace. This would be my only chance. I hesitated for moment before putting my arms around him as well and hugging him tight.

"Kirito," I said in a hushed tone. "Kirito, I love you. For the longest time now, I could only think of you. Even when I lost a duel with Keita when I told him I would be his girlfriend if I lost, I could only think of you." I was shaking. It was so hard to confess, but if I didn't keep going, I felt like I would explode. "I know that you and Asuna like each other very much. She's beautiful, lovely, outgoing, and perfect for you, but I can't just turn around and walk way form you like I have in the past." Asuna held her distance as I talked. I was extremely grateful that she would at least give me a chance to speak. "Kirito, I had such a close encounter with death just now. I feel it would be a waste to never tell you how I feel. I have no idea when something like this will happen again…"

Kirito abruptly cut me off. He pressed his lips against mine just as Keita had so long ago. We held the kiss for only a few seconds before he pulled back. "Sachi, that's enough. You don't have to say anymore." He gave me a sad look and glanced over at Asuna. He looked back and forth between Asuna and I several times. Thankfully there was no one else in the plaza or we would be getting a lot of weird stares. "I… I'm sorry you two," he said finally. "I don't think I can make a decision right now." He turned around and started back in the direction of his home.

I looked at Asuna, and she looked over at me. We both blushed and gave a weak attempt to smile. "S-say, Sachi? Would you like to come over to my place and have some tea? I can't but imagine that you've had a very difficult day. It's the least I can do for letting you run off tonight."

"T-thank you, Asuna," I said nodding frivolously. I hadn't noticed that my body was shaking so badly. I was shivering all over, and Asuna must have noticed it. "I would love to see your house. I hope that yours is more decorated than Kirito's…" I trailed off, touching on the tender spot between the two of us. Asuna gave no indication that she noticed my slip up and started walking in the direction of the teleportation portal. The Knights of Blood recently moved up to the fifty-fifth floor, and so her residence was on that level.

"Don't worry!" she said, giving me a self-assuring smile. "My house is much more furnished than Kirito's."

The inside of her house was very cozy. Everything remind me of a grown woman's house. From the curtains in the kitchen to the choice of furniture in the living room, everything Asuna put in here would have been in my dream home.

"Wow, Asuna. Your house is beautiful!" I continued my self-led tour around the house, checking out the side rooms and enjoying the change of scenery. It was extremely different from the guild house that we finally got after months of grinding out coll from weekly dungeon raids. Instead of everything in the house being very specific for the productivity of the guild, Asuna's house gave a very personal feel. I returned to the kitchen where Asuna sat at the table with a cup of tea in front of her and another in front of the seat across the table. I pulled the chair back and sat down. "Thank you for your hospitality."

"If you would be so kind," Asuna started. "Would you mind tell me what happened to you when you left Kirito's home?" She gave me a sheepish grin which quickly turned into a frown. "I'm really sorry, but I overheard your conversation with Kirito when you two were in an embrace. What did you mean by you might not live to tell him your feelings?"

I took a sip of tea before starting my narrative. An hour passed as I told Asuna just what happened to me after I left the two of them in Kirito's house. Each new development brought fresh looks of horror and disgust from Asuna as I explained the unexplained ambush by the members of the Laughing Coffin. She furiously typed away, sending a quick message to someone before letting me continue. She asked me to confirm certain details of my story as she typed. When I finally got to my escape our tea had gotten cold. Asuna made a fresh batch of tea and placed the steaming cup in front of me. I took a quick sip before explaining how I escaped.

"It was something unexplainable almost," I recalled. I tried to bring up the memory in my mind, the boundless rage and fury, frustration and anger, hopelessness and depression. All of these emotions that welled up inside of me as I thought I was about to die. "There were so many emotions swirling around inside of me. But the one emotion that trumped them all was the desire to be useful. Asuna," I said, looking into her eyes. "I honestly thought I was going to die there. I mustered up all of my courage, telling myself that if I was going to die, I would try to at least take one of the members of the Laughing Coffin with me. It was that drive that grew inside of me that allowed me to raise my weapon in a last ditch effort to fight."

I took my mace from its holster on my belt and placed it on the table for Asuna to see. She picked it up, obviously passing the strength requirement to wield it, and swung it around, trying to see what was so special about it. If anything, the electric blue color of the metal was eye catching, but there wasn't anything particularly special about it. She handed the weapon back to me.

"Sachi, could you try to recreate what happened in the forest? Or at least show me what your sword skill is. I've heard of it from many people but I have yet to see it for myself." It was an honest request. Of course she would be interested in seeing a sword skill that very few people had seen. There was something mythical about it especially since it called forth lightning, something that in a normal MMORPG game would have only been able to be accomplished through magic.

"I'll see what I can do then," I said, taking Raigon's Wrath back from her. I considered trying to actually trying to recreate the amount of lightning that I produced back in the forest, but the powerful emotions I had felt there were gone. What was left of them were simply feelings of pity, self-loathing, and loneliness. I closed my eyes and channeled my inner thoughts into the mace. That itself sounded quite silly, but as far as I could tell, that was the only way for this particular sword skill to work. Kirito popped into my head as I tried to concentrate on the sword skill. Something about his presence fired the emotional receptors in my brain. I could feel my face grow hot as I thought of him, and I turned these emotions into fuel for the sword skill. Once again, instead of the usual cackling of sparks dancing across the surface of the mace, the entire head of the weapon was surging with electricity.

"Are you sure you want me to do this inside?" I questioned her judgment. Just because the inside of the house was an immortal object and this was a safe zone didn't mean that there would be no consequences of using this sword skill inside.

"I'm sure. Everything will be fine," Asuna reassured me.

I took her word and lowered the mace. The familiar violet glow filled the room as I threw the mace upwards towards the ceiling. "Thundering Demise!" I cried out. The lightning that channeled through the mace surged through the room. Every corner of the room was illuminated in the intense blue light cast by the lightning. Asuna's eyes lit up as she watched the spectacle. Every place the lightning hit inside the room was blocked and returned with an "Immortal Object" message from the central system. Soon the entire room was filled with the purple messages. After a few seconds, the sword skill faded back into the oblivion from which it came. Asuna applauded my efforts as the last "Immortal Object" sign faded from sight.

"That really was a sight to behold, Sachi. That was much different from the stories I've heard of it. You should be proud of yourself to have discovered such a rare and powerful weapon." Her compliment both rung praise and stung. I knew that she was genuinely amazed by my Thundering Demise, but there was a catch. Now she knew what my strongest sword skill was and more or less how it worked. I would most likely not get a chance to show Kirito by myself before he heard about it from her.

"Thank you, Asuna. You're right though. My sword skill has evolved since I first used it. Even I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I think the more I use it and the more I train, I'll someday figure out exactly what purpose it serves me." I stood up from the table and put Raigon's Wrath back into its holster. "Thank you for having me over, Asuna. Your house is lovely. I would love to come back again sometime."

"Any time you want!" she replied. "I would be glad to have more company than just people from my guild come over." Her face gave away that she was a little bit less than comfortable having me come over again, but she also seemed eager to have different company than people from her guild. They must be rather drab people. I opened the door and found Kirito pacing back and forth outside of the door. He looked startled when he saw me come out of the house. He seemed to have assumed that I'd gotten kicked out.

"Hey are you alright?" he asked immediately. I tried to wave him off then I remembered that I never gave him his Christmas present.

"Yes, I'm fine." I quickly fiddled with my inventory screen and pulled out the scarf I'd bought for him in the marketplace. I looped it around the back of his neck and pulled him towards me. Our lips met for a brief moment before I pulled back. "Merry Christmas, Kirito." He wore a long worn out expression on his face. "Say, is there something wrong?" I couldn't keep my curiosity back.

"Umm, is Asuna still inside?" This was a question that I thought would have a rather obvious answer, but I humored him anyway.

"Yes, she's still there."

"Thank you. I'll be right back," he said. He walked through the opened front door and disappeared from sight. I decided to give them some privacy, but listened keenly to try and hear what was going on inside. I heard someone sit down on one of the chairs in the kitchen. Kirito started talking. After what seemed like an eternity, I could tell the conversation was starting to wrap up.

"This is the rapier I tried to give you at the end of the fifty-seventh floor. It's called the Love Impaler." I heard him hand over the rapier to Asuna. Shortly after something metallic fell to the ground with a sharp clack. Asuna started crying and all I could hear after that was, "I'm sorry, Asuna. I really am, but this is for the best." I heard a slap and one last, "I'm sorry," before Kirito reappeared in the door frame.

His face had fallen since he entered Asuna's house. He finally looked at me. He slowly made his approach and stopped half a meter from where I stood. He opened his menu with a swipe of his hand and produced a small box. I couldn't believe my eyes, but the blush on his face gave away his intentions almost immediately. He lowered himself onto one knee and opened the box. Inside was a silver ring. I put my hands in front of my opened mouth which hung open without any dignity.

"S-Sachi?" he started. He hesitated for a moment. The beating of my heart in my chest had tripled its rate. I thought perhaps he wouldn't ask, but after a short moment he spoke. "Will you marry me?"

Tears fell from my eyes. Everything I had known about this world, about my life, and about Kirito was turned on its head. I saw the way Kirito and Asuna acted around each other. It almost seemed like they were married already. The way they argued during boss strategy meetings was very comical. I couldn't keep back the torrent of water coming from my eyes. Sword Art Online was notorious for overdoing emotions, so it was impossible to really hide what you were feeling. The mind-numbing elation I felt could not be described in words. Kirito chose me over Asuna. That was all I could think of.

"Yes…" was all I could get out. With that, Kirito pulled the ring out of the box and slipped the ring onto my left ring finger.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

And with that I'm finally done with this chapter. Developing characters and relationships took a lot longer than I had expected. I can assure you that skipping the next chapter is entirely fine. It will be mostly the highlights of Kirito and Sachi's honeymoon, so there will be little or no plot actually covered besides two people solidifying their relationship. As always, feedback is appreciated.

Cheers,

K. Kyouko


	5. Once for You

Once again I would to remind you all that reading this chapter is completely optional. Other than that, thank you all very much for continuing to read this story as I write. Perhaps when I'm done, I'll put the whole thing together into one short novel for you all to read.

**Floor One Hundred and Beyond**

By: Kirisaki Kyouko

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**Chapter 5: Once for You, Together Forever**

_I'm really sorry, Asuna. Every moment I've spent with you has been a complete and utter delight, but there really is just something about Sachi I find absolutely alluring. When she left stormed out of the house, something in my heart tore, and I couldn't think of anything but her. I suppose it was a good idea to save that rapier for you as a peace offering, but as I thought when I first got it, the name gave away that it was something meant to be given as a last gift. I'm sorry for trampling all over your love, Asuna._

Sachi kept turning the ring over and over again the light, marveling the item that bonded the two of us together. We'd spent a good portion of the week away from the front lines, searching for the perfect home for the two of us to have to settle down into. We decided together that we wouldn't make the marriage official until we had a shared house to call our own. This gave us the motivation we needed to find a home as quickly as possible.

For the first few days we searched, Sachi seemed more reserved than usual. Ever since she became known as the Violet Vanquisher atop the stairs on the fifty-seventh floor, her personality had changed. She became a much more outgoing person, no longer giving up on tiny details just because they seemed too challenging or too far out of the way for her. She even took my initiative to train alone at night to stay above the rest of the players. The small trembling girl that I met back on the first day in the Town of Beginnings had bloomed into a marvelous woman.

Finally we found a home on the thirty-fifth floor where my old residence used to live. When we chose the house, she made me promise that I would let her handle the decorations inside the house. She insisted that my taste in furnishings was too drab for her. Of course I gave her my consent and proceeded to finish filing the registration for the ownership of the house. We had to sell a good bit of our reserve weapons and armor to be able to afford the house without selling my house closer to the front lines, but we managed to purchase it without having to take out a loan.

The inside of the house was not quite as large as Asuna's house, but it resembled a small townhouse that I could find in a novel about pilgrims. The house was tucked away near the back of the safe zone where nature started to overlap with the city. Outside we had a small garden with a few large trees surrounding the perimeter. Everything felt safe and secure. When we first stepped inside, the first thing we noticed that it was rather small. I wanted to move on and look into another house that might be a little bit larger, but Sachi wanted to stop and check it out. We took the automated tour of the house and were pleasantly surprised to see that unlike the entryway, the rest of the house was quite spacious.

We looked through the house, taking note of where the kitchen, living room, dining room, and bedrooms were. Everything seemed perfect for the two of us. Sachi turned to me with a pleading look on her face.

"Kirito, I really think this is the house that we were meant to own together." She pouted a little bit and gave me her best puppy dog eyes. Her younger face definitely helped persuade me. I had no choice but to give in. We collectively piled our funds and paid off the house mortgage in full. A confirmation message appeared for the two of us and gave us the ownership of the house. I couldn't keep the smile off of my face as we walked hand in and into the house. Sachi was crying softly at my side. She was smiling, but the tears wouldn't stop. I gently pulled her into my arms and buried my head into her hair.

"This is our house, Sachi. Welcome home."

Unfortunately, we had to return to the front lines. It wasn't necessary for us to be fighting right now, but we spent all of our reserve funds on the house. We fought in the highest level dungeons that the two of us could safely fight in and collected enough coll to last us for a while. We dropped by the marketplace on the thirty-fifth floor to sell off the items, then headed up to the fiftieth floor to visit Egil. He had opened a shop soon after the fiftieth floor was unlocked and had been doing business there ever since.

"Welcome!" he called out. His facial expression change immediately when he saw it was me and Sachi. "Oh I see the two front line menaces have come into my shop. How may I help you two?" We placed the weapons and armor we'd collected in the dungeon onto his examination counter for him to appraise. "Ah I see. You two have obviously been back to the front lines. I think I can give you 70,000 coll for all of this. Since it's the two of you and not some other front line scoundrels, I'm offering you two more than I would normally." He gave us a wink as we confirmed the trade. "Pleasure doing business with you two. Good thing that nothing you do here in this world has too much of a consequence on our bodies back in the other world!" He winked directly at me. Word had spread through the world of Sword Art Online that Sachi and I were getting married very quickly. Even if it hadn't, it was impossible not to catch the meaning behind Egil's jest.

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring all of the furniture sales places on various floors. Sachi was very picky about how the interior of our house would look, but I had already promised her complete control over it. We walked hand in hand from store to store, picking out a painting here and a chair there. Luckily we could put the furniture in our inventories, though it took up more space than usual, so we ended up making several trips to our home to drop off the luggage and leave to collect more. By the end of the day, we'd collected a good amount of furnishings. We started to move the furniture around inside the house, trying to find the perfect places for each piece. Sachi busied herself hanging the pictures on the walls and making sure that they were aligned correctly while I pushed and pulled the couches, chairs, and the bed to and fro.

Night time fell and we were starting to get hungry. I knew Asuna was an amazing cook, but I had no idea what Sachi and I were going to do for food. I had never even touched on my cooking skill, and I had no idea if Sachi had either.

Finally everything had its own place in the house. A project that would have taken days to do in the real world was completed in just less than five hours.

"Sachi, what would you like to do for dinner?" I was really getting hungry as night the sun disappeared over the horizon. My stomach growled, even though eating wasn't even necessary. She gave me a bright smile and walked to our kitchen.

"Well while you were moving all of the furniture around, I went out to the market to pick up some groceries with the money we had left over. I was going to make us some meat stew with fruit for dessert." She started materializing different vegetables and meats from the refrigerator's inventory and putting them onto the counter. With a few taps, she had the carrots, celery, and onions diced, the meat tenderized, and the soup based prepared. She put all of the ingredients into one large pot and put it into the heating basin. We didn't have an actual stove, but since the cooking system in Sword Art Online was so different, there really wasn't a need for one. She set the cook time for five minutes and started to set the table. "I just love the way cooking works here. Everything is so simple. I don't have to worry about cutting myself with a knife or about the meat spoiling or burning while I cook. You have no idea how much of a dream this is, Kirito."

"I could only imagine trying to cook this in the real world. The only thing I really ever made around the house was instant noodles, a sandwich, and perhaps some rice for my sister while my parents were away…" My voice trailed off. I hadn't said anything to anyone in this game about my family before, and here I was, already so comfortable with Sachi that it came out as if we'd talked about it one hundred times. A sharp 'ding!' was heard signaling that the food was ready to eat. Sachi brought the pot over to the table and opened the lid. Inside was a delicious looking stew. Everything was mixed together in a perfect blend. The tomato and meaty scent filled the room making my mouth water. She ladled some into a bowl and handed to me along with a pat of rice.

"Here you go. Enjoy." The look of happiness on her face was unmistakable. This was her first time preparing a meal for me, her new husband, and it had turned out great.

"Itadakimasu,"I said as I clapped my hands together in front of me. I pushed my spoon into the thick stew, blew on it a couple times, and took my first bite. It certainly wasn't as good as some of the food Asuna had prepared, but it was delicious. "Sachi, this is incredible." Everything blended together perfectly. Each bite had a consistent mixture of meat, carrots, tomato, celery, and potato. The rich aroma that wafted up from the bowl was almost like a drug. I couldn't put my spoon down until all of the stew was gone from my bowl. I eagerly took a second helping, giving Sachi a sheepish grin as I noticed she was only halfway done with her first.

"T-thanks," she replied, blushing furiously. "I'm so glad you like it." She continued to spoon the stew into her mouth in a methodical way. She gave up trying to be subtle about watching me eat as I devoured the stew she put in front of me. Her blue eyes followed the path of my spoon as each mound of stew disappeared into my mouth.

We finished eating and started to clean the kitchen. There really wasn't much for messes in this world, but we did it anyway as a sort of bonding activity. The actual washing of the dishes wasn't very exciting. She tapped the plates and hit wash. She handed the dish to me for me to hit dry, and that was the entire process. Both of us were quiet as we worked, cleaning all of the dishes we used, the pot, and then the plates where we put the rice on. Soon the kitchen was as spotless as it was originally.

"Sachi, now that we finally have our house, would you like to finalize our marriage?"

"I-I'd love to."

It wasn't much of a conversation. Both of us were extremely nervous. We didn't have much to say with words, but our faces and the way we moved gave everything away. We both opened our menus. I sent Sachi a marriage proposal. When the message appeared in front of her, her eyes opened as wide as they would go. The entire moment was surreal. She hit the accept button. A small shower of confetti fell from the ceiling of our house as a congratulations message appeared. It read, "Congratulations! You are now husband and wife!" Sachi started crying and ran towards me. I caught her in my arms and crushed my lips against hers. It was finally official. We were married.

I picked her up and flipped her over my shoulder. Her laughter rung through the house like the sound of crystal chimes. I carried her through the house, visiting each of the rooms in turn. The house wasn't any newer since we'd gotten it, but there was something magical about finally being married that made our tour through the house so much sweeter.

Her laughter died away when we finally reached the bedroom. It wasn't so much that the mood wasn't right for it, but it was just the sight of the bedroom where the two of us would start sleeping together that made us quiet down. The lights in the room turned on automatically when we entered. I gently laid her down on the bed and sat down beside her. That scared looked returned to her face. It was the face that I'd gotten to know well over a year ago when we were all trapped in the main plaza on the first floor.

"Y-you know, Kirito. This is my first time…" she broke off. Of course I had no experience with this sort of thing myself, but I had to take some action. I leaned down and pressed my lips against hers. Her soft lips offered little resistance as I pushed forward. I parted my lips just enough to pass my tongue through, nudging at the crevice between her lips for entry. I felt her lips part around my tongue inviting me in. The tips of our tongues met, playfully poking and prodding at each other. Her warm breath passed through the openings in our mouths, mixing the smell of dinner into the perfume of pheromones. I quickly lost count of the times our lips met, completely lost in the love, or perhaps lust, that ushered me on. Once more, our lips came together. I took a chance a lightly nibbled at her lower lip, eliciting a quiet moan.

Our harmless foreplay lasted for what seemed felt like hours. Sachi would occasionally roll over me to be on top. I immediately responded and tried to roll her back down. It was just like being a kid again, except for the fact that kids wouldn't be kissing. The more we rolled and the more we kissed, my member started to make its appearance. Sachi didn't seem to notice anything the first two times she rolled me onto the bottom, but the third time when she sat down to keep me in place, her fingers accidentally brushed over it.

"Ah, S-Sachi, what are you…" I said as she gave it a light squeeze. This was the moment we'd been waiting for. Sachi, who had always been very shy, was overcome with a sudden urge to move faster. She couldn't hide the embarrassment from her face, the emotional system in the game made sure of that, but she gladly took control of the situation.

"Y-you know, Kirito. There's an option in the user interface that Asuna told me about." She opened her menu for me to follow. I quickly opened my menu and followed her through the maze of options trying not to lose the mood. "Ah, this is it. The ethics code." She clicked the option and turned the ethics code off. I followed suit and closed the menu. "A-and that's all there is to it," she said simply. She paused for a moment.

"S-say, Kirito?" Her shy voice returned once again. "W-would you mind turning around for a moment?"

"I can't exactly do that right now," I said laughing. Sachi had forgotten that she was still on top of me. Her face turned red as she looked down. She quickly got up and crawled over to the opposite side of the bed. I obliged her wishes and turned to face the window. I secretly manipulated my window and removed all of the available clothing options, leaving me nude. I slid under the covers of the bed before she turned around, still facing the window, waiting for her to finish. I heard the bed give way under her weight as she crawled into the bed. The covers pulled in her direction as she too crawled under the covers.

"You can turn around now," she croaked. Her face was scarlet with embarrassment, but the fire in her eyes remained. I rolled towards my left to face her. I reached out with one of my arms to pull her closer to me. My hand made contact with her bare skin. I reached around, past her shoulder, and pulled her towards me. After only a few centimeters she started to resist. "I… I don't know if I can do this, Kirito," she wailed.

I stopped trying to pull her towards me. Instead I pushed my hand through her silky blue hair and placed a kiss on her lips. I started to pull back when she pulled me back in. Her arms were no longer crossed over her chest but instead were wrapped around me. My tongue danced around her, dodging this way and that. I couldn't resist the temptation much longer. She returned the favor and lightly bit my upper lip. The more we kissed the more urgent her moans became. Our breathing hastened, coming in quick gasps.

Curiosity started to get the better of me as we lay in bed together. I used my index finger to trace a line from her cheek down her face and stopping just before her breast. I gazed into her eyes, confirming that she would let me before lightly squeezing.

"K-Kirito… N-no… You can't," she moaned. "N-not there."

I continued to knead the two mounds of flesh causing Sachi to arch her back. Her breath came faster and faster. I ducked my head underneath the blankets and kissed my way down from the nape of her neck to her other breast. I licked around the erected nipple, lavishing the way Sachi squirmed from my touch. I used my hand to pinch one nipple as I used my lips to chew on the other.

"N-no, this can't be happening!" she groaned. "Kirito is playing with m-my… Ahh…" With one last moan, she convulsed for a brief moment on the bed, arching her back as far as it would go before collapsing back onto the bed. Her breath came in painful gasps.

I pulled back the blanket. It'd gotten very hot underneath the comforter. I felt blood rush to my face as I looked at Sachi for the first time. Her midnight blue hair shaped perfectly around her small neck, falling just short of her shoulders. I moved my eyes downward, over her breasts, then across her hips and down towards her feet. I loved everything about Sachi. I inched closer to her. She had reclaimed control over her respiratory functions by now, but now she was shivering.

"Sachi, are you alright?" I rubbed her back with my hand to try and reassure her. "I'm sorry if it was too much… I don't particularly have much experience with this…" I couldn't help but ruin the mood. I was worried. Sachi wrapped her arms around me and drew me in closer. Her breasts flattened against my chest, and she tenderly kissed me.

"I'm so cold, Kirito. Would you share your warmth with me?" Her eyes pleaded with me, glistening in the moonlight. There was one last area I hadn't explored yet. I placed a tentative hand on Sachi's upper thigh close to where her legs came together. Ever so gently, I pushed her legs apart and brushed my hand against the tender area between them. A small trickle of liquid was already running down her leg which was now on my hand. "Ahh… Kirito! T-that's my…" Her voice cut off as I pushed one finger into her opening. A warm wetness enveloped my finger. Sachi tensed up, squeezing the finger inside of her. I locked my lips against hers again, trying to stimulate her in every way I could. One hand was below, marveling in the new sensation while the other was squeezing her breast. I moved my finger around inside of her warm folds, making squelching noises that seemed to echo off the walls of the room. The cacophony of moans and squeals was music to my ears. Finally, she took my hand from her breast and put it against her face. She stared me down with lustful eyes. "Kirito, will you take me?"

I couldn't wait any longer. I tried not to seem too eager as I positioned myself above Sachi. Her cheeks were red, but the rest of her body was pale under the moonlight. The lust was gone from her eyes, replaced by a softer admiration and understanding. She reached forward and took both of my hands in hers. I leaned down to kiss her before pinning her arms to the bed. I lowered my body, aiming my member for what I believed to be the correct opening. I moved my lower body forward but to no avail. Sachi smiled at me before letting out of a quiet giggle.

"Y-you know, Kirito. I thought you had experience with this sort of thing." She was only teasing me, but it stung just a little bit. She managed to free her right arm from under my hold and grabbed hold of my member. Warmth spread through my body as she playfully rubbed and stroke it with her fingers. "S-so this is what it's like." She stopped talking and pushed it down just a little bit further. "T-there. Try it now." Under her guidance, I slowly pushed forward. This time I met little resistance as I penetrated her last sanctuary.

The pleasure was mind-numbing. My hands no longer held onto Sachi's, but grasped at the pillow behind her head. Her arms were clinging to my body as I pressed in deeper into her womb. Inside, her body convulsed around me, squeezing tight and then relaxing. After each thrust the process would repeat. I couldn't tell who I was anymore. I didn't need to. Sachi and I were one now.

"K-KIRITO!" she cried out. Her voice was high and shrill. I pulled out and thrust in once more, eliciting a wild yelp. She called out my name again and again. I started to lose control of my body, succumbing to the rhythmic thrusts deep into Sachi's womb. She started to move with me, helping me penetrate deeper into her body. Each thrust was punctuated by a mutual moan uttered from both of us. Soon the moans grew louder and louder. "K-Kirito, I! I!" she cried out.

With one final thrust, her lower body started violently convulsing around me. Rapid contractions pushed me past my limit. I buried my member as deep into her body as I could and released my seed. "S-Sachi!" I cried out. My arms shook beneath me as I tried to hold myself up. The weight of my body became too much for my arms to hold, and I collapsed on top of Sachi, gasping for breath. "Sachi… Sachi…" I cooed. I buried my face in her neck, taking in her sweet scent.

"Thank you… Kirito," I heard her whisper. I dislodged myself from her allowing all of the pent up fluids to release themselves onto the bed. I didn't care. I held Sachi close as the two of us drifted off into the world of dreams.

"_Ah? Hello, who are you?" It had been a year since we were released from the game Sword Art Online. Sachi stood in front of me holding onto a large lollipop. Her overall appearance was the same as how she looked in the game, but she'd matured. Her breasts were even larger; her hair now fell on her back; but her style of clothing seemed to be the same as the Violet Vanquisher I'd known for those few years._

"_W-what do you mean 'who are you?'? It's me, Kirigaya Kazuto," I said flabbergasted. I had married Sachi inside the game. We'd made promises to find each other in the real world to have a relationship there too. Why did she not remember me? "Do you really not remember me? Don't I look familiar?"_

"_I'm sorry, Kirigaya-san, but I'm looking for Kirito. He said he would meet me here today." Her voice was rather plain. She didn't seem troubled at all that I looked exactly like the Kirito she'd met in game. In fact she was treating me as if I was just one of his friends._

"_I am! Well… I was Kirito, Sachi." I couldn't understand this. How could she not make the connection between my in game name and my real name? "If you take the first two letters of my last name and use the last letter of my first name, you'll get Kirito."_

_She gave me a confused look. "I'm sorry, Kirigaya-san, but like I have already told you, I'm waiting for the man I married all that time ago when we were trapped together in the world of Sword Art Online." She gazed out into the crowd with a hopeful expression. Her eyes darted around, checking each face that passed by trying to make the facial connection between him and 'Kirito.' _

"_Sachi!" I shouted at her. "It's me, Kirito!" She gave me a very rude glare and walked right up to my face._

"_Listen here. I don't really think that you know who you're talking about. This is the man that saved my soul at the beginning of that death game that swept through Japan. He taught me everything. You could never be the man that he was." She spat in my face and left. I watched her back slowly disappear into the crowd. Eventually she faded away, and I lost track of her in the tides of people around me. _

"_So this is how our relationship ends, Sachi…"_

Sachi was stirring next to me as the first rays of the morning light penetrated through the curtains. I opened my eyes to find my vision was entirely covered in blue. I brushed Sachi's hair out of my eyes and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. As she rolled over in bed, I flipped through the user interface and turned the ethics code back on. I immediately received a notification saying that I was indecent and needed to apply some ethics to my appearance, so I quickly equipped my clothing with a flick of my fingers.

"Good morning, Sachi." She rolled over once more, blinking sleepily at me and rubbing sleep from her eyes. The rest of her body was still hidden by the covers, but I could still feel her bare skin beneath the blankets. "Did you sleep well?"

"Mmm, yes." She sat up in the bed, letting the covers fall from her chest. I tried to hide my blush, but she saw it anyway. She looked down to see that she was still naked while I had my clothes on already. Her face turned scarlet, and she quickly equipped her clothing. I couldn't tell if she had turned her ethics code back on though. "S-sorry about that."

"Ah, no worries, my love. Besides, it definitely brightened my day considerably, being able to wake up next to you." We kissed for a while, letting the time pass by us. I can't remember how much time passed while we sat next to each other, but eventually nature called us forth from our bed. My stomach growled loudly in the silence of the room. Sachi laughed.

"Well I guess it's time to tame one more best then," she said brightly. There was a new spring to her step as we walked to the kitchen. She pulled out some eggy sort of material from the fridge along with some leeks. None of the food was quite the same in Aincrad as it was in the real world, but Sachi's makeshift version of okonomiyaki was delicious.

"You're really good at cooking, Sachi." The compliment seemed to take her by surprise. The piece of okonomiyaki she was holding on her fork fell back onto the plate as she looked at me with an opened mouth.

"N-no! I only just started raising my cooking skill, so this is all I can make," she blabbered, gesturing out to the food she'd prepared. She was right in a way. The food she'd prepared was extremely simple and hard to mess up, but the way she'd done it was masterful and really did taste like the food I would have eaten in the real world. I had to stop myself from thinking too much more into it. I couldn't think about the real world or else I might not be able to believe that my time here was real too.

"Well, I still think that you're an amazing person." This compliment was one hundred percent true. "You've changed so much since I first met you, trembling in the plaza the day this game started. You've truly grown up to be an amazing person." It was mind boggling to me to think just how much she'd changed. As I thought back to it, I remembered that she was sprawled out on the ground screaming for someone to save her from the madness. When her avatar had reverted back to what she really looked like the expression of helplessness she wore became exponentially worse.

"It's true," she said, looking down at her plate of food. Her brow was slightly furrowed as she thought about those dark times. "I was such a different person back then. I couldn't even take care of myself back then. It was all thanks to Kirito that I was able to break through that barrier holding me back." I saw a look of horror pass over her face. "Oh no!" She yelled. "I forgot to tell my friends from school about our marriage!"

I thought that this was kind of a silly idea, but to think that way would be to undermine the seriousness of our relationship. All I could do was let her fret about it and try to comfort her. "Sachi, I'm sure it's all right. Perhaps we should go visit your guild house and check up on them. It's probably been a while since you last showed your face there, Violet Vanquisher." The last bit was only a joke, but she seemed to take it personally. Her eyes started to well up with tears. "S-Sachi! I didn't really mean it like that."

She wiped the tears from her eyes before they could fall. She gave me a reproachful look. "You know that was the reason I haven't been back to see them recently." She gave me a hurt expression. "All of this has happened so fast, Kirito. I don't know what to do." I held her in my arms and swayed slowly back and forth.

"Sachi, everything is going to be okay. It just might take some time for you to adjust to everything." It wasn't really all that comforting. Sometimes waiting is the hardest thing for someone to do. "And you don't have to do it alone anymore. I'm here with you now." I spun her around and placed a kiss on her forehead. "You won't have to be alone ever again."

"Kirito," she mumbled from my chest. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"How about we take a stroll around our new neighborhood after we clean up?" I suggested. Walks always seemed to get my mind off whatever was troubling me, so I thought perhaps it would work for Sachi. "We were so busy working on making the house look nice that we haven't really explored where we live yet."

Her face lit up at this suggestion. "Yes! That sounds nice." She scraped the remains of her breakfast into her mouth in a gross fashion and took the dishes over to the sink. Together we washed the dishes in the same manner as the night before. A few minutes later, all of the dishes were cleaned and put away into the cupboards that were already in place in the house. "I'm going to go change, Kirito. I'll be out in a minute." She ran off towards our bedroom and disappeared from sight.

I sat back down at the kitchen table. I glanced at the mirror on the wall that Sachi had insisted on putting there. The person who stared back at me wore a somber expression. It didn't look like happiness or sadness. It was more neutral if anything. I tried smiling and watched the reflection. He gave me an awkward smile in return. "Ugh, this isn't really going to work is it," I grumbled to myself. A few moments later, Sachi returned wearing a soft wintergreen winter dress with a matching scarf. She also had on a pair of fuzzy brown boots and high stockings. She gave me a cute smile and looped her arm into mine. I'd been thinking so much I'd forgotten to put on something to protect me from the cold. I materialized a jacket from my inventory and put it on. Sachi took my arm once more and we walked out the front door. We were outside for the first time as husband and wife. Everything seemed to have a fresh new perspective about it.

Unlike neighborhoods around the real world, the neighborhood Sachi and I lived in now was relatively small. There were only two other houses for a kilometer around. Each of the houses looked similar from the outside with similar outdoor scenery. It was certainly a big difference from the front lines, though. There was no pressure to do anything. We could relax all we want and not feel too bad about it.

Sachi and I continued our meager living conditions for the better part of a month. We would occasionally head out towards the front lines to hunt for some coll, but after those small trips, we would return home to our small house on the thirty-fifth floor. Everything was perfect in our lives. We heard news that the front lines had cleared up to the sixtieth floors without us, but there had been some severe casualties. Because the front lines were missing two of their strongest attackers, the defense was forced to hold off for a longer period than usual. Some began to run out of healing supplies. Some of the defenders died because they ran out of supplies, others were cowards who teleported out, leaving the rest of the bossing party to fend for themselves.

More and more of these stories began to pour into our house. Each time Sachi heard about the casualty rates from the latest boss fight, she would burst into tears. We both felt absolutely responsible for the lives of those that were lost. We were here in our humble home enjoying each other's company while the rest of the 'real' players were on the front lines trying to free everyone from the unbreakable grasp of Kayaba Akihiko. After the casualties from the sixtieth floor came to our attention, Sachi broke. She couldn't take the pressure of being away from the fight and having innocent people die because of us.

"Kirito! I can't take it anymore!" she cried. Tears fell from her eyes as she read the news about the clearing of the sixtieth floor. "I can't stay here in comfort while the people up there are fighting without us and dying!" She equipped all of her armor and ran out of the house. I chased after her, caught her, and pulled her back in.

"Sachi, there's nothing that you can do by running off by yourself in reckless abandon. That will only get you killed and lose all of us our chances of clearing this game." I knew she was right. We had spent enough time here on our honeymoon. It was time to get back to clearing the game. We would still have each other and our house, but we would simply be returning to our lives before we'd gotten married. I took her hand in mine and led her out of the house once more. "We're going to return to the front lines, Sachi. But always remember, you're now my first priority. We'll also have to spend some sleepless nights catching up on our experience. We've fallen behind a good bit." She nodded with a solemn expression.

"Alright, let's get back to where we belong, Kirito." I took her hand as we stepped onto the teleportation platform.

"Teleport, Floor 61, Salemburg!" we shouted in unison. The familiar feeling of being decomposed and recomposed overtook us as we were teleported up to the sixty-first floor. We appeared on the platform of the sixty-first floor to a group of front line members. They spotted us as we appeared and rushed over.

"Where have you two been?" they demanded. There was obvious anger in their faces as their eyes saw the way we were holding hands. "This game is serious! How could you two run off from the front lines for four entire floors!" The rage in their voices silence both Sachi and me. We looked at each other and then walked right past them. "You stupid beater! You and your bitch of a wife!" they called after us. Sachi was crying again as we headed towards the lead dungeon. The boss had yet to be discovered, so we just did what everyone else did when there was no boss: hunt.

"Kirito? Did we really do the right thing by taking a break from the front lines?" The uncertainty in her voice was unsettling. I honestly didn't know if we did the right thing. All I wanted was to live life to the fullest here in this game. After I'd met Sachi and Asuna, my life gained a whole new meaning in this world. There was no longer just the goal of clearing the game. Now I had someone else to care for.

"Sachi, we did the right thing. Just because we're caught in this game together doesn't mean that we have to stop living our lives for the sake of others." I squeezed her shoulder and tried to reassure her. "Come on, the monsters are about to appear."

We charged into the dungeon weapons drawn. The sky disappeared overhead, replaced by the gloomy interior of a cave. Many dungeons in Aincrad were like this, but this one had a particularly gloomy feel. It might have been a consequence of leaving the happy life I'd lived with Sachi these past few weeks, but there wasn't much I would want to do less than be in this dungeon. Blue flame torches covered the walls, casting flickering shadows over the floor. An ominous feeling permeated through the dungeon as we travelled deeper and deeper inside.

"Kirito, I think if we go any further in it'll start to get really dangerous. I've heard of entire parties being wiped out in dungeons like this because they happen to walk into an anti-crystal field." She didn't sound overly worried, but there was always that slim possibility. Even the strongest players could be overwhelmed by enough enemies or if they became too tired to fight after a long day of training inside an anti-crystal field.

"That sounds like a good idea. We'll just camp the PoP monsters here. I think it's best to move with a full party if we're going to go further. Make sure you have a teleportation crystal at the ready, though." I had to make sure that we took every possible precaution against danger. I couldn't stand the thought of my newlywed wife being taken away from me after such a short time. The monsters we fought disappeared quickly under the crushing blows of our weapons. It was boring to be fighting down here in this dungeon, but the MMO player inside of me flared up once again, raring up to grind out some more experience just like the old days. With Sachi by my side, I never had to worry about being lonely every again.

We continued to progress through the dungeon. As the PoP of each monster started to dwindle, we moved further and further into the dungeon. We both knew that this was dangerous to do, but we had to keep going. We'd fallen behind the front lines in terms of levels and experience, so we had to do this to catch up. The clock on my UI read 23:19. My mind was getting tired. Sachi seemed exhausted. It was becoming exceedingly dangerous to stay here in this dungeon to train.

"S-Sachi," I stuttered. "I think we should call it quits after this last wave of spawns. Neither of us looks like we can go on much longer." I wasn't exactly short of breath, but my exhaustion was making it hard for me to think straight.

"Right," she said as her arm dropped.

The final wave of monsters appeared in front of us. I jumped in with my sword trailing out behind me. I slashed through the closest monster, immediately dropping its hit points to nothing. Sachi came in right behind me and impaled the next one. This was taking too long. My mind was about to shut off from exhaustion.  
"Sachi, this is taking too long. Let's finish this together. One more strike." My request seemed impossible. I only had one skill that I'd kept hidden from my wife, but I trusted her to trust me. "I'm sorry for keeping this a secret from you for this long, but it was a necessity for me," I said as I went through my menu. I equipped the skill I'd gotten once I'd hit level seventy called 'Dual Blades.' Then I went to the inventory screen and equipped the second sword I'd received a long while back somewhere in the fortieth floors. Sachi gave me a confused look when she saw the second sword. She like everyone else in the game thought that we were all limited to only one sword to fight with. "This is my secret skill, Sachi. It's called 'dual blades.' With this we'll clear the dungeon and head home."

"If you just wanted to clear the dungeon, you could have just asked me to do it for us, you know," she replied with a sullen face. "But does that mean you don't know about my secret sword skill either, Kirito?" She held out her blue mace in front of her and faced the monsters that were quickly surrounding us. "I'll take the first half with my sword skill, then you take the other half with yours, okay?" Without waiting for a reply, she closed her eyes for a moment. I heard something sizzling in the air, then I tasted the lightning. Finally I saw the mace she wielded was covered in blue sparks. "Ah, I guess it's been a while…" she muttered. "I can't even get it's true from, but I guess this for the best." She didn't explain as she lowered her mace near her calf. The mace glowed a violent purple just before she thrust it up towards the ceiling. "Thundering Demise!" she cried out. Twenty shards of lightning burst forth from her mace clearing half of the monsters in the area. We both gained a small chunk of experience as all of the monsters shattered and disappeared.

"Sachi, that was amazing," I said in awe. I'd never seen something so unique in my life. It was almost as if she'd revived magic into a game where it was all about being able to control your sword to succeed. "Let me show you mine now." I drew the second sword from my back and held it out in my left hand. I crouched down to center my balanced as I prepared to strike. I decided on using my most extensive sword skill to take down the remainder of the enemies as quickly as possible. But first, I needed to clear a few of them out. I dashed forward straight into the hoard of monsters ahead of me. I heard Sachi gasp as she saw my reckless approach.

With one swing of the sword in my right hand, the first monster fell in front of me. I saw a group of enemies forming on my left side, so I took the sword in my left hand and lunged through three of them, ending their pitiful existences. With a flurry of slashes and stabs, I reduced the remaining number of enemies down to about twelve. I held both of my arms out from my sides. Both swords glowed the unnatural black that developed after clearing the fifty-seventh floor. I leaned forward, drew my arms back, and dashed once more into the remaining enemies.

"Watch carefully, Sachi. This is what I've been working on for the past few months. Starburst Stream!" Everything in my line of sight started to blur. I had to focus more than I could have hoped in my exhausted condition to keep myself moving in the right direction. Enemy after enemy fell to my dual bladed onslaught. "I will protect you, Sachi! I no matter what!" I shouted. I moved faster and faster, eventually losing all sense of direction as the sword skill moved me to and fro. Finally I came to a stop as the last enemy fell before my sword. A small message appeared in front of us. I'd reached level eighty.

"Congratulations, Kirito!" Sachi held me in a tight embrace. "I know you'll stay true to your word. I'll never worry again." She pressed her lips to mine. I chanced a peek at her face as we kissed. Her sapphire eyes were looking right back. Her face flushed red as I felt blood rush into mine. "Kirito, I love you." She rummaged through her inventory and pulled out the teleportation crystal. "Come on. Let's go home. Teleport! Floor thirty-five, The Forest of Wandering!"

"Teleport! Floor thirty-five, The Forest of Wandering!" I repeated as she disappeared from sight. Once more the feeling of disappearing overtook me as I was transported back down to the thirty-fifth floor. once I rematerialized, I saw Sachi waiting for me just outside of the teleportation area. "Yeah, let's go home, Sachi." I took her hand in mine as we made our way down the winding path towards the edge of town where our house was.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Thank you all for reading through this. It certainly was a challenge to write something like this. I hope that I lived up to your expectations as a writer. As always review if you would please, the feedback is very nice to receive after a long day's work.

Truly yours,

K. Kyouko


	6. Until Oblivion Shall We Part

Hey guys, just another chapter here. This story is going to be finishing up within the next few chapters. Thanks for following this story guys. On a side note, I'm going to be introducing my own name for Sachi in the real world simply because there was never one given. Please forgive me for this if you do not like it.

**Floor One Hundred and Beyond**

By: Kirisaki Kyouko

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**Chapter 6: Until Oblivion Shall We Part**

"Say, Kirito, what do you think is going to happen when we finally beat this game?" Large rolling clouds passed overhead. Kirito and I were sitting on the swing on the porch of our house. The metal chains squeaked in rhythm as Kirito pushed us back and forth. His soft black eyes were closed. He looked just like a kid, wearing a pleasant expression on his face. There was just something alluring about Kirito that drew me to him. I poked his cheek to see if he was awake. He didn't flinch. I sighed and lay my head down on his shoulder. "I think maybe you're right, Kirito. When we clear the game, nothing will change at all. We'll still be us. Won't we?"

The most recent floor to be cleared was the seventy-third floor, and the game had been going on for just over two years now. The front lines were feeling more and more crowded these days as more people decided to join the crew that was going to liberate the survivors of this awful death game. The training areas near the front lines started to become more and more crowded. Kirito and I had to stay up later and later into the night to keep our training schedules up to speed. During the day, we would spend time clearing the dungeons alongside the rest of the clearing parties, but when night hit, we had to make our way back to the training areas.

These lazy days with Kirito were my only saving grace. I could barely keep up with the 'solo player' training regimen that he'd created for us. It was grueling work going out night after night with only a few hours of sleep, but the time I got to spend alone with my husband was well worth it. He was always looking after me. Under absolutely no circumstances would he allow me to fall below half of my HP. If he noticed that I was getting close he would stop me and tell me to drink a health potion to top myself off. It was a little bit insulting, but I understood that I meant the world to him. He also meant the world to me. It was these days that we got to relax and spend time together that I relished the most.

The hours slowly dragged on, and the sun finally started to set over the horizon. Kirito finally stirred under my head. I tilted my head up as he turned his head to the side to look at me. "Good evening, Sachi." He pulled me into his chest in a tight embrace. A light musk drifted past my nose as darkness closed over my senses. "The boss room was found earlier today. The leading commanders of the Knights of Blood are requesting that we come to the discussion for defeating the boss. Apparently something terrible has happened." His hold on me loosened as he said this. I looked up to see his face. What I saw nearly made me cry. He had a pained expression on his face. It was a face that knew real sadness. He knew what was going on, but he wanted to spare me the details.

"Kirito, tell me what happened," I begged. He averted his eyes and looked at the other end of the bench. He gritted his teeth as he tried to find the right words.

"W-well…" Kirito let out a long sigh. "The original party of twenty that went into the dungeon found the boss's door. Half of the squadron went in to check it out, but as soon as the party entered, the door, the doors slammed shut and wouldn't open again." He looked sick to his stomach as he recalled the message he'd received earlier. "When the doors finally opened, the room was completely empty. Neither the boss nor the squadron that went in could be found. The remaining members immediately withdrew and reported this to Heathcliff. That's all."

I sighed, got up from the bench, and extended my hand out to him. "Come on, Kirito. I'm not going to let you sit here and mope all day. Let's get going. We're the leaders of the charge after all." I tried to give him an encouraging smile, but I wasn't quite sure how effective it was. He took my hand, and I pulled him up. "Come on. This is our day for relaxing, so don't let something like this ruin our day. We're just going out on a walk together." I kissed him on the cheek and pulled him out of our yard. He seemed a little bit reluctant to go. The look on his face made him look like he wanted to commit suicide.

"Kirito, couldn't you at least pretend that you want to be here with me?" The look he gave me after that sent a pang of guilt through me. His normally calm and collected features were contorted with anger and disgust. His brows were furrowed in frustration. Even his face was turning red.

"I-I never wanted to be here okay?!" Kirito shouted. "No one wanted to be here in this death game! Why don't you understand this, Sachi?" Tears slid down his face. He shook uncontrollably, unable to keep walking. "Every person that dies in this game dies in the real world! The longer we take clearing this game, the longer these real people are trapped here!"

"S-so t-that's it, Kirito? None of this really matters? It's all about w-what's going on in the real world?" Now I was crying, too. His words were so harsh. I couldn't help but cry bitter tears. I'd given Kirito all of my love, and he was telling me that nothing here really mattered. Everything was about clearing the game and freeing the people that didn't want to participate. An overwhelming feeling of emptiness overcame me, and I sprinted down the road towards the town teleporter. I glanced back only once and saw Kirito standing in the same place I'd left him. As I reached the town teleporter, I said, "Teleport! Floor seventy-four, Kamdet!" I was surrounded by the familiar tickling blue lights that collected the data that comprised my body and transported me to the seventy-fourth floor. The blue light finally fell away from my vision and the seventy-fourth floor appeared in front of me once again.

This floor had been unlocked almost two weeks ago. Normally floors took around ten days to clear, but for some reason the clearing party hadn't found it until very recently. The meeting was in a familiar cave close to the entrance of the dungeon that the boss was found in. The reason Kirito and I had never found it was because the path had been covered by a large bolder that someone destroyed while training in the cave by accident. This prompted that group to explore the path, ultimately leading to their demise against the boss. As I arrived into the room, I drew a few stares, but they all quickly looked away. I saw Asuna did a double take as she noticed Kirito wasn't with me. She walked over to me and led me to a far corner away from the noticeable ears of the others.

"Sachi, where's Kirito?" She sounded very worried. Since we'd gotten married, she'd rarely seen me without Kirito around. I didn't want to tell her that we'd had a fight. I couldn't give her any grounds to believe that Kirito and I weren't meant for each other. But then again, perhaps we weren't. He didn't believe that what happened here existed in the other world as well. Everything to him was to clear the game and get back to his normal life. A life without me.

"I think I know what you're thinking, Sachi," Asuna said. She placed a friendly hand on my shoulder and crouched down to look me in the eye. "You're probably thinking that Kirito doesn't believe that anything in this world is real; that even your love is an act. But did I ever tell you when…" She frowned. She nodded to herself and continued. "Did I ever tell you when I really first started to like Kirito-kun?"

"You never have, Asuna. But I certainly did know that you liked him too… I'm sorry about all of this." She squeezed my shoulder with her hand and gave me a smile.

"You don't have to apologize. You really did nothing wrong. It was a beautiful day a long, long time ago. The lead party was trying to clear a dungeon, and I came across Kirito sleeping under a tree. I was furious that he would be so nonchalant as to be sleeping while the rest of us were trying to clear the game. I walked right up to him and demanded to know why he wasn't helping out in clearing the dungeon."

Asuna's face lit up as she started talking. She must have really adored Kirito. Even her body language seemed happier when she talked about him. She bounced a little bit as she talked, and her red hair waving to and fro as she tilted her head from side to side. She really sounded like a school girl talking to her best friend about her crush. She blushed and giggled, just like any other girl would.

"He looked up to me and gave me this very strange reply. He simply told me that it was one of Aincrad's nicest weather settings and that it would be waste to be in a dungeon. He invited me to lie down next to him and enjoy. Haha! I actually ended up falling asleep next to him, wasting the entire day. While I slept, though, Kirito watched over me and made sure no one tried anything funny like a sleeping PK. After that day, I really started to watch Kirito more carefully. Soon, I thought I was in love." Her face fell as her narrative came to an end. "Kirito was the one to teach me that each day in this world really is a day. Everything here exists, just as stuff exists in the real world. I'm not sure what happened between you two, but please try to understand him. For me?" Her eyes pleaded for our happiness. There was a hint of sadness in her sparkling green eyes, but there was no bitterness or malice. She genuinely wanted us to be happy.

"Asuna, thank you for telling me all of this. I'll be sure to talk to Kirito about this so that we can move on." We returned to the rest of the group. The last stragglers finally walked in, the last of which was Kirito. As casually as possible, I took my position at Kirito's right side as the meeting began.

Heathcliff stood up and tapped his shield against the ground to call the attention of the audience. In a grandiose gesture, he raised his arms out and held them out to the crowd. "Welcome!" he said. His warm deep voice filled the room. "Today we are here to discuss the strategy for defeating the boss on this floor." The last remaining bits of chatter died away as he got to business. He brought his hands together behind the shield and pushed it into the ground. "As you all know, we have a grave tragedy on our hands. Half of the squadron that discovered the boss on this floor was wiped out. Ten of the leading soldiers have died for finding the boss door, the door to our freedom!" A few scattered cheers were heard as Heathcliff mentioned the clearing of the game.

"I believe," he said as he opened a virtual map over the stone table in the room. "that for us to have the best chance of surviving this fight, we should gather as many of our strongest soldiers as possible and try to take it on. This will involve as large a defensive core as possible with a few high powered attackers to attack once the boss's attacking patterns have been analyzed."

Egil stood up and approached the front of the room where Heathcliff stood. "I agree," he said in his booming voice. "For us to have the best chance of defeating this boss, we will need everyone that has high defensive stats to stay in the front and tank the damage that the boss throws out. But for that, we'll need to get the best equipment. Stats are only one factor when it comes to fighting bosses."

Schmitt of the Holy Dragon Alliance then walked up beside Egil and smacked his hands down on the table. "My men are the best defensive core in the game. It's an insult to me and my men that you say that we need better equipment."

Heathcliff was in the background watching the discussions unravel into a chaotic shouting match. The members of each of the major guilds were berating each other, comparing stats, equipment, and prestige. Finally Asuna snapped and walked to the front, throwing Schmitt and Egil out of the way.

"That is ENOUGH!" she shouted over the din. "The only people allowed to argue in a meeting like this are Kirito and me!" A few people laughed, understanding the joke. The rest of the crowd were scared of her violent demeanor and held their tongues. She drew her rapier and thrust it out towards the rest of us. "Listen to me! There will be no problems with the boss fight. As long as each of us plays to the best of our abilities and don't do anything stupid, we'll all be fine." She swiped her rapier once across her body before sheathing it.

"Well said, Asuna," Heathcliff said. "I commend you for your feisty temper and ability to control these meetings." He opened his menu and flicked through a few options before closing it and looking back over the players gathered around. "This will conclude today's meeting. Please meet here tomorrow at 10:00 and we'll forge onward towards the boss." As soon as we were dismissed, people started to leave the cavern. Some headed out towards the fields, others into the dungeon to train, while others still just went home.

"Sachi," Kirito whispered in my ear. "We need to talk." He took my hand and led me away from the cave. If it weren't for the urgency in his stride I would almost feel like it was just a normal walk. We finally came to a stop in front of a giant oak tree. He turned to face me before sitting down on the ground, resting his back against the tree. "Sit down," he said, patting the ground next to him. I followed his lead and sat down with my back against the tree.

We sat there in silence for the better half of an hour. Wind rustled the leaves in the trees overhead. Crickets could be heard in the grass. I started to get drowsy. It was late at night, and it was still our day off from training. I laid down with my head in Kirito's lap, no longer worrying about what he had to say. The fact that we could come back to this serene location and still be able to be like this meant that nothing had changed. I decided to break the silence.

"Kirito, I-I'm sorry." I choked on my words after not speaking for so long. Kirito put a hand in my hair and started playing with my short blue hair. For some reason it felt so good to have someone playing with my hair. "About what I said early… I thought that you didn't really care about what went on during this game. I thought that all you wanted to do was clear the game. I thought you didn't care about me anymore." Kirito kept moving his hand through my hair showing no signs of agitation or even acknowledging that I was talking. "I… I had a talk with Asuna. She told me what you think of this game, and I think I'm finally able to understand how you feel. I'm not worried anymore. I'm just happy to be by your side."

Kirito chuckled quietly. It wasn't really unusual to hear him laugh, not for me at least. But there was a hint of sadness to his voice. "I guess I should really thank Asuna then." He took his hand out of my hair and pushed it through his own. "I think I know the story she told you. If it's the one that I think it is, then she truly understands how I feel about this predicament. A long time ago, I decided that this game really was the same as real life. I should live each day here to the fullest." He hoisted me up and sat me on his lap. No matter how many times I'd been picked up under my armpits, I never really got used to the feeling. He kissed me for a brief moment before continuing. "Every day we spend here is no longer a day lost in the real world, Sachi. Every day that we live here is a day that we gain in this world. The feelings we have for each other are real, regardless if they were found during this nightmare or not."

I pressed my lips to his check then whispered, "I love you, Kirito," in his ear. I nuzzled my face into the curve of his neck and closed my eyes. "I'm sorry that I ever doubted you." I felt his strong arms wrap around my waist, holding me in place.

"Yeah, Sachi. I'm not going anywhere. Especially not without you. Come on, I'll carry you home. Hold on." He placed a quick kiss in my hair before hoisting me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he stood up. His arms held me firmly in place, so I relaxed my grip as we started to make our way home. We were getting close to the entrance of the dungeon when we noticed figures moving towards them. In the light of the moon, we were able to make out the uniforms of the Holy Dragon Alliance members approaching the dungeon. The force was twenty-four strong, and they were heading straight for the dungeon.

"Those fools," Kirito hissed under his breath. He dashed forward, but stopped suddenly, nearly throwing me off. He hid himself behind the trees and inched his way to the small cave that the strategy meeting had been only a few hours before. Once we were safely inside, Kirito let out a sigh of relief. I looked around the cave and saw Asuna sitting on the stone table. She dropped her rapier to the floor in shock as she noticed us.

"What are you two doing back here? I thought that everyone had gone back to town." As she started to understand the situation, her expression changed.

"That's what we though too," Kirito replied. "But the members of the Holy Dragon Alliance were just seen heading into the caves by themselves. I think that they're going to try to defeat the boss before anyone else gets a chance at the rare drop."

Asuna's eyes opened wide in shock. It was very understandable. It was hard to believe that there were players stupid enough to try to take on a boss all by themselves without the support of the other clearing guilds. "That's just suicidal!" she shouted all of the sudden. She picked her rapier up off of the floor and put it back in its sheath. "Come on we have to go stop them before they get themselves killed!" She leapt off the table towards the entrance to the cave. We followed after her as best we could, deep into the depths of the dungeon.

As the entrance of the dungeon disappeared behind, the atmosphere between the three of us became stifled and strained. We raced towards the coordinates of the boss's door. Occasionally a monster spawn would slow us down. We were in a hurry, so I used 'Thundering Demise' to quickly clear up the monsters in just seconds.

"Hurry, hurry!" Asuna kept saying as we ran through this corridor and that. We knew that if the first party of ten that went in got wiped out as quickly as they did, this party probably had no chance either. We ran as fast as the game would allow us go, eventually coming to the boss door. Unlike what was said earlier, the door opened for us when we arrived. Screams burst from the room. Inside was a giant monster waving its giant sword around at the cowering members of the Holy Dragon Alliance.

"None of you is to run, you cowards!" The leader of the force called out. More screams were heard as the boss charged at the next group of victims, knocking them up into the air in its path. Asuna drew her rapier and charged in with a high pitched cry.

"Asuna!" Kirito shouted. He grabbed my hand and dashed into the boss room. I didn't have a choice but to follow them inside. As soon as all three of us were inside, the door closed behind us. It was the worst possible scenario. For some reason, we'd been allowed in, but we weren't going to be allowed back out. Though we'd entered the room, the boss seemed to pay us no attention. It swung its giant sword at two of the wounded men, ending their pitiful existences. I shrieked. Asuna shouted. Kirito finished messing with his menu and shouted, "Get those guys to safety! Let me handle this!" A second sword had materialized on his back. Unlike his trademark Elucidator which was black, this sword was a beautiful creamy white and blue.

"K-Kirito!" I shouted as Asuna dragged me back to help the wounded soldiers. I cried as I watched Kirito attack by the boss by himself. I took the time to look at the boss. The name over its health bars read "The Gleam Eyes;" underneath the name, it had had four health bars. I switched my attention back to the injured men and Asuna. We quickly hid them behind the pillars, out of sight of the boss. I peeked past the pillar to watch the fight going on. What I saw made my mouth drop.

Kirito had shown me his unique skill "Dual Blades" before, but this was something I'd never seen. Using his massive experience as a solo player, he dodged left and right, jumped backwards, and rolled underneath The Gleam Eyes. Every time Kirito moved, he made a swipe at the boss, slowly whittling away at its massive health bars. The fight went on for what seemed like hours. After the first health bar was depleted, The Gleam Eyes started to use its free fist to attack. In between sword slashes, it would throw a powerful punch at Kirito. He could block the sword attacks, but when the punches came, he could only dodge. The first one connected with a grisly crunch, sending Kirito halfway across the boss room. I wanted to cry out as I saw Kirito's health bar drop to half, but Asuna and I had to stay silent so the boss wouldn't be attracted to us.

Kirito fought on and on, adapting to each of the boss's new attack patterns as each health bar disappeared. I didn't notice until The Gleam Eyes was on its third health bar that he hadn't used a single sword skill. The Gleam Eyes was the first to make its move. Unlike players, the boss didn't say or have any sort of indication as to the name of its sword skill, but it brought it sword back across its waist. The dangerously long sword glowed blood red before The Gleam Eyes dashed across the floor directly at Kirito. He barely had enough time to react. Only a sword skill could block another sword skill, so he used Double Circular to parry the boss's attack. The boss's attack was extremely powerful. After Kirito's sword knocked the attack away, The Gleam Eyes stumbled backwards for a moment. Kirito took this opportunity to charge in. He moved faster than I'd ever seen him move before. He dug his blades deep into the boss's soft fleshy stomach, quickly removing the remainder of the third health bar.

As the fourth health bar came into sight, the boss jumped back to the back of the room. It roared, causing the men to shudder around us. The boss grew another three meters causing its sword to increase by another two meters. The atmosphere of the room was crushing. Even Kirito seemed to have stopped in his tracks. I slowly edged my way to my feet, pulling my mace from the holster on my waist. Just as I was about to dash into the fight with my husband, Asuna shouted, "GO GET HIM, KIRITO!"

The Gleam Eyes took his eyes off of Kirito for only a split second. This was the distraction that Kirito has been looking for. It only took him a quarter of a second to traverse the vast expanse of the circular room that the boss resided in. Kirito stabbed and slashed the boss in the stomach before jumping back, narrowly avoiding one of the boss's more dangerous sword slashes. The boss tried its sword skill once again. Kirito parried it with another Double Circular before crouching down, ready to finish the boss. Both swords glowed. The Elucidator glowed black; the white sword glowed white. Kirito let out a war cry as he sprinted towards the boss. "Starburst Stream!" he cried.

There was very little that the boss could do to stop the flurry of attacks coming from Kirito's dual blades. It blocked to the best of its ability as blade after blade cut into its shaggy exterior. A few times it tried to catch Kirito off guard with a slash of its massive blade, but Kirito managed to knock the sword away without breaking the Starburst Stream. The fight was a magnificent display. Kirito's swords flashed black over white, and white over black. The Gleam Eyes added red along with bursts of sparks into the mix. The two danced around the room, jumping, dodging, rolling, and attacking. Every time Kirito was grazed by the boss, my heart fluttered as I watched his health drop. Kirito never once glanced at his user interface. He was tunnel-visioning the boss down, only barely managing to block the flurry of attacks that it used against him.

Finally the battle started to come to a close. The Gleam Eyes' last HP bar fell to the yellow zone. I glanced at Kirito's health. It had fallen into the red zone with only about an eighth left. "K-Kirito…" I whispered through my hands which were clasped in front of my mouth. Not even once did Kirito use a health potion. There was a horrible bloodlust in his eyes that seemed to draw him away from the rest of us. This was his fight and his fight alone. Kirito had always been the original beater; he was the one that would save us all.

The Gleam eyes let out a fearsome roar and readied one more sword skill. Its large demonic blade glowed blood-red once more. Instead of drawing the blade across its body as it did in previous sword skills, it pulled the blade straight back as if to impale Kirito. Kirito in turn readied both of his blades.

_This is going to be the last exchange of blows isn't it… There isn't anything I can do but watch from over here behind this pillar while you're over there fighting is there, Kirito? I-if you die, you know that none of us would be able to handle the boss. K-kirito, this isn't like me. I don't cry anymore. So why can't I hold my tears back? Kirito…. Don't die. Please don't die, Kirito. _

"KIRITO! YOU BETTER COME BACK TO ME!" I shouted across the room. I thought I saw a smile flash across his face as he crouched down, ready to pounce.

I saw Kirito's lips move as he muttered something under his breath. Then he dashed forward with both swords blazing behind him. He shouted, "THIS IS FOR YOU, SACHI!" There was a blinding light as the three swords met. I shielded my eyes and hid behind the pillar. I heard a horrible snapping sound which was quickly followed by the sound of something shattering. I heard one last roar from The Gleam Eyes and then the shattering sound once more. I stayed behind the pillar, too afraid to look out. I clenched my eyes closed and balled my hands into fists.

Someone put their hand on my head. "Sachi, it's okay now." Kirito's voice made me open my eyes. I looked at his weary face and jumped into him, knocking him to the floor. I hugged him and kissed him. This was the man I loved: our savior. "S-sachi if you keep doing that, I might really die." His voice was nonchalant, so I quickly checked his health. It was on the verge of completely disappearing. I gasped and jumped up off of him and offered him a health potion. He sipped it without complaint and laid his head back down on the floor of the boss room. "I think I'm just going to take a short nap here. I'm beat." Kirito closed his warm black eyes. Within moments he was asleep. I carefully lifted his head from the cold hard floor and lowered it into my lap. He looked like a baby when he slept. Kirito couldn't be much older than me. I closed my eyes to enjoy the peaceful moment. Only then did I remember that there were other people around.

I heard the shifting of the others behind me. The distinct clink of the Holy Dragon Alliance's armor echoed off of the walls of the room. Asuna's soft footsteps approached me from behind. The footsteps slowly surrounded Kirito and me. I finally opened my eyes to see a circle of people around me. Asuna was crouching down in front of Kirito. She poked his face and giggled. "You really can fall asleep just about anywhere can't you, Kirito?" Kirito winced and slowly opened his eyes. I supported him as he tried sitting up. "These people here would like to thank you for saving them." As if on cue, the remaining members of the Holy Dragon Alliance bowed, then the leader stepped forth.

"Kirito, Asuna, Sachi, thank you all so much for coming to our aid. We were selfish and foolish to try to fight this fearsome enemy on our own." His face was red with embarrassment and anger. Even so, there was nothing but gratitude in his voice. "If you three hadn't come around, we would have all been wiped out. Actually, now that I think about it, we thought everyone had gone home. That's why we tried to kill the boss." The man bowed once more. "Thank you once again. We'll be off now." He made a curt movement of his hand to his men. They stood attention, bowed once more, and filed out of the room.

"Kirito, shall we go open the door to the next floor?" I asked. Kirito's eyes were already starting to close once again. He didn't make any effort to reply for a while. Eventually he mumbled something I could barely hear.

"Let's just wait for tomorrow…" he said with the last of his strength. The amount of strain on his mind must have been pure torture. For the entirety of the boss fight, he couldn't even fathom the possibility of being able to escape or use an emergency heal. He was fighting to save all of us, draining his concentration and generating fatigue greater than any of us would be able to stand. Kirito fell asleep in my arms. I gently lifted him from the ground and walked out of the boss's room along with Asuna. I pulled two teleport crystals out from the emergency bag I kept tied at my waist.

"We'll see you tomorrow, Asuna. Kirito needs to get some sleep I think. Haha!" I couldn't keep myself from laughing. As mature as Kirito tried to act, it was times like this that reminded me that we were all around the same age.

"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow at the opening of floor seventy-five," Asuna replied. She pulled her own teleportation crystal from underneath her pleated uniform skirt. "Teleport Grandum!" Asuna disappeared in a flash of bright blue light. When the light cleared, she was gone. I waved at the spot where she'd been only moments before.

"Let's go home, Kirito. Teleport, Forest of Wandering!" Kirito and I were covered in blue light as we were quickly transported to the floor of our residence. It was quite a walk from the teleportation platform to our house, but I didn't mind. It was time that I could spend watching Kirito sleep. When we'd first gotten married, I would stay up after Kirito had gone to sleep and watch him for hours. Occasionally I would snuggle up to him while he slept. Sometimes when I did this he would hold me close like a stuffed animal. I always felt so safe next to him. Our house finally came into view. I walked through the front gate and into the house. After so much time spent here, I could make my way around the house with my eyes closed. I still marveled the way that such a small house fit Kirito and me so perfectly. It was cozy to the point of suffocating, but the feeling of safety and comfort that it provided trumped that.

I gently lowered Kirito into our bed and tucked him in. I changed into my pajamas with a quick flip through my inventory menu. Almost by habit I flipped through the menu screens. I wasn't really paying attention and I ended up at the ethics code once again. I only turned it off once more after the night we bought the house and gotten married. Kirito had insisted just once more that we mess around. I wanted him to be happy, so I let him have his way. But I still wanted to experience it in the real world, with the real Kirito. I flicked the ethics code off and tucked myself into bed. I kissed Kirito's forehead and snuggled up to him as I loved to do so much.

Kirito put on arm around me in his sleep, pulling me closer to him. Because I turned off the ethics filter I could feel his chest brush against my breasts through the thin cloth. I felt my face pink as Kirito's steady breaths pushed the tips of my breasts up and down. "K-Kirito… S-stop it…" I moaned. I managed to roll over in his arm, and his arms came to a rest around my waist. "Jeez, even when you're asleep you're a pervert, Kirito." His breath trickle down my neck and pushed my hair to the side. I curled up to fit perfectly alongside his body and closed my eyes. My face still felt hot, and I felt something warm and wet between my legs. Ever since this game had started, I'd never had to worry about my period, so that wasn't what I was feeling. "Oh, Kirito, now look what you've done…" I muttered. I carefully opened my legs to try and wipe away the fluids that were building up.

The moment my fingers touched the soft tissue below, waves of pleasure coursed through my body. I nudged my finger across the tissue once more. A soft moan escaped my mouth. I shuddered with delight, moving my finger around in small circles around the small mound of erected flesh. My body temperature was rising without any sign of stopping. It was so hot there next to Kirito that I wanted to jump from the bed. I continued to work my finger around and around in small circles. My breath started to come in shorter and shorter gasps. "N-noo…" I hissed under my breath. "N-not from just this. Nooo…" My body shook violently. I squeezed my legs together, holding my hand in place as I tried not to make any noise. Waves of heat coursed through my body. I worried that those waves might even be hitting Kirito.

Kirito shifted positions in bed and slowly opened his eyes. "S-Sachi… How are you doing? Where am I?" He took his arm back from around me and hoisted him up in bed. "How did I get home?" He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. There was still the edge of weariness etched onto his face. "Sachi what happened?"

I pulled up the covers with me, trying to hide the mess I'd made under the bed as I sat up. I turned to face Kirito whose clouded black eyes were staring back at me. I began my story where his memories seemed to fade out. "A-at that point, you seemed to have lost all of your sanity. You didn't seem to remember that Asuna and I were in the room there with you. To you, there was only the boss and yourself." I hiccupped. "Kirito, I was so worried! I didn't think that you would make it out alive!" Tears formed at the edges of my vision. I could still see it, burned into my eyes, the man I loved on the brink of both virtual and real death. Each clash with the Gleam Eyes brought his hit points closer and closer to zero which would end his existence. I don't even know if Asuna and I would have been able to finish off the boss.

Kirito pulled me into a tight embrace. He ran his hand through my hair to try to calm me down. I stopped shaking as his warmth started to spread through my body. "Sachi…" he mumbled. "I promised you a long time ago that I would see you through the end of this game, and I will keep to that promise. We're married in spirit here. When we break free of this game, let's be sure to find each other. I don't think we'll be able to get married right when we meet, but it's definitely a hope for the future."

Kirito was always a man of few words, but every word he said seemed to weigh more than most people's words. My heart fluttered as he said these words. "K-Kirito!" I yelped. The tears had started to fall once again. "Yes, please stay with me forever!" He continued to stroke my hair as I cried myself to sleep against his firm chest. It had been an extremely long day, and I was ready to sleep when it finally came.

"_Nozomi!" my mother called out from outside of the room. I patted the front of the white gown I was wearing and crossed the room to open the door for my mother. She wore a modest red dress that covered her shoulders and arms. She wrapped her arms around me dryly weeping. "I can't believe that this day has finally come… My daughter is getting married, and to such a fine man too." _

"_M-Mom… Stop it…" I couldn't hide the embarrassment in my voice. She removed herself from me and took a moment to sweet her eyes over my figure. "I need to get ready. I'll see you in a bit." My mom turned and left through the door. I listened as her footsteps disappeared down the hall. I quietly closed the door and slumped down onto the chair by the mirror. "Ahh, I'm so nervous right now!" The woman helping me get ready offered me her hand. I took it and she hoisted me up._

"_Now, now dear. You'll be just fine," she said. She gave me a dry wrinkled smile. "Now close your eyes so that we can finish your makeup." I closed my eyes as I was told and flinched when the cold makeup pad came in contact with my skin. "You're doing fine, deary. Just hold still," came the soothing voice again. Tweezers plucked at my eye brows, and the pad kept tapping away at my face. _

_An hour later I was told to open my eyes. I carefully opened my eyes and looked into the mirror. In the reflection I saw a beautiful woman standing before me. Her lips were as red as the sweetest wines, and her skin was as pale as the moon. I blinked at the reflection. The reflection blinked back at me. I flicked my bangs to the side, and I watched as the reflection did the same._

"_Is…. Is that really me?" I wondered aloud. I was shocked. No one had ever told me that I was pretty before in my life. Not once had a boy really even approached me. Well, except for the one time, but it was all a farce. I looked at the mirror one more time to make sure that it was really me that was in the reflection._

"_Yes, it's you, Miss Sachiru. You look absolutely gorgeous." The middle aged woman put her hand on my shoulder, smiled, and walked out of the room with the rest of her helpers. I bowed and thanked them for their work as they left. _

_The last thing that I would have to put on would be the veil. It was sitting on a stand in the corner of the room. I'd only looked through it once, and it was quite a challenge to see through it, but when I looked into the mirror, no one would be able to tell who I was. It was both comforting and nauseating. I was really going to do this. I glanced at the clock on the wall and then to the wedding schedule on the table. There was only fifteen minutes left until I had to go out. I paced around the room for a while until one of the women who had done my makeup came into the room and told me it was time to put on the veil and come out. I carefully lifted the veil from its pedestal in the corner of the room and placed it over my head. The woman helped me adjust it just right. I glanced to the mirror once more before I left the room. I could still see the dark blue of my hair at the top in a neat bun. I smiled beneath the veil and followed the woman out of the room. _

_We waited outside of the entrance to the ceremonial hall for the wedding to start. Very few people were left milling about outside as most of them were already in their seats. The few people that we did see quickly made their way through the doors and inside. I heard the music start up inside and the doors opened for me. My father took my arm in his and walked down the aisle with me. I giggled to myself remembering that I had always wanted a Western style wedding, so my father was happy to oblige. I stepped up the stairs and closed my eyes for only a moment. I opened them to find my groom only a black outline in the harsh glare of the sun. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make out his face. _

"_I'm sorry! I can't see you…" I said. It didn't seem to matter. The man raised my veil…_

"Sachi… Saaachiiii… Sachi wake up," Kirito hissed in my ear. I slowly opened my eyes. Everything blurred for a moment as I got accustomed to the surroundings. "Good to see you awake," he said with a smile. I pushed myself up from his shoulder, yawned, and stretched my hands high towards the ceiling. "You seemed to be having a good dream. Was it about me?"

"Actually, it was." I gave him a devilish grin. I thought back to the dream I'd had. It was so perfect. Everything that I had ever wanted was there - my friends and family and the man I loved, all in the same place. As I distracted myself with my thoughts, Kirito took the opportunity to press his lips against mine. My thoughts snapped back to reality and focused only on Kirito. He touched my cheek with his hand and pressed further and further into the kiss. Soon he had me down on the bed once more. Our lips parted as he repositioned himself. I slowly opened my eyes to look at him. Even if he was going to be the player that would save us all from the devilish hold, he still looked like a child. His soft features made him look only halfway serious when he was trying to argue during boss meetings. I reached out for him and pulled him towards me. I felt his body press against mine, pushing my breasts flat against his chest. I closed my eyes once more and let the warmth over take me. "Kirito. I love you. Don't leave me please."

"Uhn, I love you too, Sachi." He lifted me out of the bed and whirled me around once before putting me back down onto the bed. "Come on. Today is the grand opening of the next floor. Heathcliff said that he would save the honor for me whenever I'm ready." He offered his hand to me. I quickly flipped through all of my menu options, turning the ethics code back on first, then changing my clothes, armor, and weapons before taking his hand. He hoisted me from the bed and handed me a small bread roll. "Eat up, and let's get going!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

And this ends another chapter. Thanks for reading through this, and I hope you'll leave me a review. As always I enjoy the feedback and I hope you'll come back. SAO is about to end in the anime scene which has already gone through Alfheim, so we'll see where this adventure takes us next time.

Until then,

Kirisaki Kyouko


End file.
